4j;.i  2  6l96tf 
OCT  2  5  RECD 

OCT  1 5  ir- 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

NEW  VORK    ■    BOSTON    •    CHICAGO   •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MFLBOrRKE 

THE  MACMH.LAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT 
AND  EDUCATION 


r.v 
M.  V.   O'SHEA 

PROFESSOR    OK    EDUCATION 

THE    UNIVERSITY   OF 

WISCONSIN 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 
1921 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1921, 
By  the   MACMILLAN   COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  elcctrotyped.     Published  March,  1921. 


NoriDooti  ^T(B0 

J.  8.  Cuahing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Masa.,  U.S.A. 


^^ 


1  os\ 


PREFACE 

In  writing  this  volume  the  author  has  had  constantly  in  mind 
the  interests  and  needs  of  teachers  in  service  and  also  persons 
who  are  preparing  to  teach.  Consequently  those  aspects  only 
of  mental  development  and  of  education  which  directly  concern 
those  who  train  the  young  have  received  attention ;  all  strictly 
technical  and  speculative  discussion  has  been  avoided.  No 
attempt  has  been  made  to  treat  comprehensively  the  psychology 
of  childhood  and  youth  or  educational  values  and  methods. 
Two  questions  have  guided  the  discussion  throughout ;  —  first, 
How  does  the  individual  normally  respond  at  different  periods 
in  his  development  to  the  typical  situations,  physical,  intellectual, 
aesthetic  and  social,  in  which  he  is  placed ;  and  second,  How 
can  he  best  appropriate  the  materials  and  benefits  of  education 
so  that  he  can  utilize  them  to  greatest  advantage  in  daily  life? 

The  point  of  view  is  that  afforded  by  present-day  biological 
psychology.  For  those  who  may  not  at  first  glance  see  just  what 
this  point  of  view  is,  it  may  be  said  that  one  who  regards  human 
nature  from  the  standpoint  of  biological  psychology  seeks  to 
explain  the  behavior  of  a  child  or  a  youth  on  the  basis  of  natural 
laws  governing  the  development  of  his  body,  his  intellect  and  his 
character.  It  is  seen  that  the  individual  is  at  birth  equipped  with 
tendencies  which  represent  some  of  the  activities  which  have 
proved  of  service  in  the  life  of  his  ancestors,  and  these  tendencies 
are  manifested  in  varying  degrees  and  forms  in  the  course  of 
development  frojn  birth  to  maturity.  But  the  child  is  born  into 
an  environment  which  is  fundamentally  different  in  many  respects 
from  that  in  which  the  impulses  which  he  brings  with  him  were 


vi  PREFACE 

established,  and  so  he  encounters  difficulties  in  adjusting  him- 
self to  the  world  in  which  he  must  live.  It  is  the  object  of  edu- 
cation in  the  school  and  in  the  home  to  assist  the  individual  to 
make  necessary  modifications  of  and  adjustments  to  his  environ- 
ments as  easily  and  cfTectively  and  with  as  little  strain  and  stress 
as  p)ossible.  To  secure  information  bearing  on  these  matters, 
the  writer  has  made  observations  and  investigations  on  his  own 
part  and  has  studied  the  investigations  made  and  views  presented 
by  others ;  and  he  has  endeavored  to  organize  and  interpret  all 
available  data,  and  present  conclusions  in  straightforward,  in- 
telligible language. 

Stress  is  laid  in  this  volume  on  dynamic  methods  in  teaching, 
and  an  attempt  is  made  to  observe  the  principles  advocated  by 
assigning  an  important  place  to  exercises  requiring  the  student 
to  analyze  and  investigate  problems,  to  interpret  data  bearing  on 
various  aspects  of  development  and  education,  and  to  apply 
conclusions  to  original  situations.  It  is  the  author's  experience 
that  most  readers  and  students  need  the  stimulus  of  concrete 
problems  in  order  actually  to  master  what  they  read  or  study,  and 
especially  to  gain  ability  and  facility  in  making  practical  use  of 
the  principles  they  acquire.  So  in  Part  III  of  this  volume  many 
photographs,  diagrams,  tables,  graphs,  quotations  and  queries 
are  employed,  all  relating  in  an  orderly  way  to  subjects  which  are 
discussed  in  the  text,  and  the  reader  is  encouraged  to  utiHze  all 
his  resources  in  knowledge  and  critical  method  to  throw  light 
into  dark  places  and  to  bring  apparently  divergent  phenomena 
under  a  few  basic  principles  of  development  and  of  education. 
A  sufficient  variety  of  exercises  has  been  provided  so  that  a  class, 
a  study  circle,  or  an  individual  reader  can  select  according  to 
special  interests,  facilities  for  investigation,  or  degree  of  acquaint- 
anceship with  psychology  and  related  sciences.  • 

In  1005  the  writer  published  :i  volume  entitled  "Dynamic 
Factors  in  Education,"  which  was  more  or  less  of  a  pioneer  in  the 


PREFACE  vii 

field  which  it  covered.  This  book  met  with  a  generous  welcome 
from  teachers,  and  it  has  apparently  played  a  small  part  at  least 
in  promoting  dynamic  methods  of  teaching  in  the  schools  of  our 
country ;  but  the  plates  have  become  worn,  and  it  has  been  de- 
cided not  to  reprint  it.  Consequently,  it  has  seemed  advisable 
to  include  in  this  volume  a  few  of  the  more  useful  chapters, 
thoroughly  revised,  of  the  earlier  book.  It  is  possible  that  a 
reader  of  this  volume  may  recognize  some  paragraphs  which  he 
saw  in  the  earlier  book,  but  the  little  that  has  been  preserved 
from  "Dynamic  Factors  in  Education"  has  been  brought  into 
accord  with  the  large  amount  of  research  that  has  been  con- 
ducted in  this  field  since  the  earlier  book  was  written. 

M.  V.  O'Shea 

The  University  of  Wisconsin 
Madison,  Wisconsin 


CONTENTS 

PART   I 

DYNAMIC   ASPECTS   OF   MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Motive  Forces  in  Development:  Physical  Well-being  3 
A  simple  illustration  of  the  nature  and  role  of  driving  forces. 
Physical  welfare.  Predominance  of  the  food-securing 
impulse.  Self-protective  impulses.  Conflict  of  motive 
forces.  Resistance  to  remedial  treatment.  The  impulse 
to  seek  protection  from  wind  and  weather.  Interest  in 
clothing  for  decoration  rather  than  for  protection.  Fear  as 
a  protective  agent.   Fear  as  a  motive  force  in  development. 

II.    Motive  Forces  in  Development:    Soclal,  Intellectual 

AND  Esthetic  Well-being 18 

The  passion  for  experiences  with  persons.  The  passion  to 
communicate.  The  strongest  force  of  all,  —  the  wish  to 
secure  the  good-will  of  one's  fellows.  Rivalry  as  a  motive 
force.  Resentment  and  aggression.  Submission  to 
leadership  as  a  motive  force.  The  urge  to  gain  knowledge 
for  its  own  sake.  The  constructive  impulse  as  a  motive 
force.  The  impulse  to  solve  intellectual  problems.  The 
choice  of  the  beautiful  and  avoidance  of  the  ugly.  Activ- 
ities reminiscent  of  ancestral  life.  Environment  vying  with 
hereditary  forces.  Two  forces  acting  on  the  child  in  his 
development. 

III.     Primitive    Forms    of    Adaptive   Activities:     Trial  and 

Success;  Imitation ^^ 

The  helplessness  of  the  infant .     The  first  step  in  acquiring 
adaptive  activities.     A  concrete  example  of  acquiring  a 
ix 


CONTENTS 

AFTER  PACE 

voluntary  act.  Learning  involves  excessive  activity. 
The  integration  of  simple  acts  into  more  complex  adjust- 
ments. Nothing  is  learned  dc  mn'o.  Imitation  as  a  form 
of  adaptive  activity.  The  phenomena  of  mimicry.  When 
does  imitation  begin?  Apperception  in  imitation.  The 
principle  illustrated  in  adult  imitation.  The  course  of 
development  with  respect  to  imitativeness. 

I\'.     Higher  Forms  of  Adaptive  Activity:    Generalization; 

Symbolization  ;  Imagination  ;  Reason   ...       54 

The  adaptive  activities  of  animals.  "King  Pharaoh's" 
abilities.  Types  of  intelligence.  Scnsori-motor  re- 
sponse. A  horse's  responses  depend  upon  visual,  auditory 
or  olfactory  cues.  The  quahty  of  animal  intelligence. 
Popular  misconceptions  regarding  the  abilities  of  animals. 
Illustrations  of  a  dog's  intelligence.  One  trait  of  dis- 
tinctly human  intelligence,  —  symbolization.  Impor- 
tance of  symbolization  in  adaptive  activity.  Develop- 
ment of  symbolizing  activities  in  the  child.  The  ability 
of  the  individual  to  develop  free  ideas.  The  ability  to 
foresee  consequences  and  adapt  means  to  ends.  Free  con- 
cepts must  be  controlled  by  the  ends  to  be  attained.  The 
most  important  distinction  between  the  primitive  and  the 
higher  types  of  intelligence.     Analysis  and  synthesis. 

\  .      EXPRESSIONAL    ACTIVITIES  :      VoCAL,     FeATURAL,     PoSTURAL, 

Gestural 77 

Indefiniteness  of  the  first  efTorts  at  expression.  Ready- 
made  means  of  expression.  Darwin's  view  of  the  origin  of 
expression.  The  expression  of  complex  emotions.  Or- 
ganic accompaniments  of  emotion  reenforce  motor  re- 
actions. The  James-Lange  Theory.  With  the  child  ex- 
pression is  intense  but  of  short  duration.  With  the  adult , 
expression  is  subdued,  but  it  is  more  enduring  than  in  the 
earlier  years.  Why  does  expression  become  subdued  with 
development  ?  Women  are  more  expressive  than  men. 
Racial  differences  in  expression.  The  expression  of 
thought.     Reflection  involves  strain  and  effort.     Purpose- 


CONTENTS  xi 


PAGE 


ful  expressional  activities.  Gesture.  Figurative  gesture. 
The  use  of  the  gesture  in  conveying  ideas  of  quality  and  of 
action.  The  use  of  gesture  to  emphasize  feeling.  Re- 
lation of  gesture  to  language.  Individual  differences  in 
the  use  of  gesture. 

VI.     Expressional  Activities :    Graphic,  Pictorial.  .     ic6 

The  development  of  a  sign  language.  The  development  of 
Hnguistic  symbols.  Scribbling  activities.  Studies  of 
children's  drawings.  Difficulty  of  representation  no 
barrier  to  expression.  Older  children  are  inhibited.  The 
child's  diagrams  embody  the  most  essential  character- 
istics of  objects.  Always  the  same  diagram  for  any 
given  object.  Special  characteristics  of  objects  not  in- 
cluded in  diagrams.  Are  logical  relations  revealed  in  chil- 
dren's drawings?  Difficulty  in  representing  special  re- 
lations. Language  acquired  more  easUy  and  naturally 
than  drawing.     The  psychology  of  drawing. 

VTI.    The  Development  of  Coordination 128 

Coordination  in  infancy.  The  first  stages  in  acquiring 
manual  dexterity.  The  wave  of  development  is  toward 
the  extremities.  The  development  of  pedal  control.  The 
development  of  coordination  in  speech.  The  principle 
illustrated  in  the  child's  use  of  sentences.  The  order  of 
losing  coordinations  in  degeneration. 

VIII.    The  Development  of  Inhibition  ;  the  Neurological  and 

Psychological  View 140 

Children's  lack  of  inhibition.  The  effect  of  motor  re- 
straint on  mental  activity.  Restraint  comes  with 
development.  The  neurological  view  of  inhibition. 
Suggestions  gained  from  the  phenomena  of  degeneration. 

IX.    The  Development  of  Inhibition  ;  Restraining  Forces    .     1 54 

The  perfectly  restrained  individual.  Experiences  which 
develop  restniir.l.  Stages  in  acquiring  restraint. 
Physical  coercion   not   the  only  force  that   leads  to  re- 


xii.  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACK 

straint.  Restraining  influences  operate  differently  at 
various  stages  in  development.  Imitation  of  self- 
restraint  in  others.  The  restraining  influence  of  heroes  in 
stories.  The  fusion  of  restraining  forces.  The  weak- 
ening of  an  impulse.  The  role  of  formal  education  in 
developing  restraint.  The  influence  of  ideals  estab- 
lished in  history,  literature,  et  al.  The  restraining 
influence  of  habits  established  by  study.  Individual 
differences  in  the  matter  of  self-restraint. 

X.     Activities  Peculiar  to  Adolescence i6g 

Transformations  occur  abruptly  during  puberty.  Boys 
form  gangs.  The  boy  is  interested  in  tribal  activities. 
The  boy's  tribal  interests  will  flourish  only  in  the  gang. 
The  larger  the  gang  the  more  tribal  its  interests.  The 
gang  promotes  pugnacity.  Muscular  contests.  Steahng. 
The  instinct  of  acquisition.  Destruction  of  property. 
Profanity  and  the  use  of  tobacco  go  hand  in  hand  with 
stealing,  etc.  Truancy.  Swimming.  Competition  in 
games.  Girls  form  "sets"  which  arc  only  loosely  organ- 
ized. Activities  growng  out  of  sex-interest.  Eagerness 
to  find  a  job. 

PART   II 
EDUCATIONAL  INTERPRETATIONS 

XI.  Dynamic  Education:  Content  Studies  .  .  .  .187 
The  meaning  of  dynamic  education.  How  the  child  is 
enabled  to  interpret  the  world  about  him.  The  dynamic 
principle  illustrated  in  the  Montcssori  schools.  The 
dynamic  principle  applied  in  arithmetic.  The  dynamic 
principle  applies  to  all  studies.  Dynamic  methods  in 
secondary  education.  Making  rhetoric  dynamic.  The 
teaching  of  science  in  the  high  school.  Dynamic  teaching 
of  citizenship.  Developing  patriotism.  The  first  step  in 
developing  love  of  country.  We  are  all  members  of  one 
lx)dy.     The  study  of  community  life. 


CONTENTS  xiii 

CHAPTER  HAGi; 

XII.  Dynamic  Education  :  Thk  Role  oi'  Suggestion  .  .  205 
Action  follows  the  direction  of  attention.  I'he  con- 
structive treatment  of  aches  and  ills.  One  can  intensify 
children's  misfortunes  by  suggestion.  The  use  of  sugges- 
tion in  the  sick  room.  One's  defects  may  be  increased  by 
suggestion.  The  morals  of  a  community  may  be  elevated 
or  degraded  by  suggestion.     Sugge-stion  in  the  theater. 

XIII.  Overstrain  in  Education:    Wasteful  Practices      .        .218 

Present-day  conditions  that  cause  overstrain.  The  chief 
cause  of  overstrain.  The  need  for  periods  of  quiet. 
Wasting  nervous  energy  in  the  home.  The  teased  child. 
Noise  as  a  nervous  irritant.  Overstrain  in  the  schools. 
Waste  from  excessively  line  work.  Unnecessary  tension 
in  writing.  Concerning  pens.  The  typewriter  is  less 
wasteful  than  the  pen.  Postures  that  lead  to  waste  of 
energy.  The  eye  in  relation  to  nervous  waste.  Mal- 
adjustment of  ocular  muscles.  Maladjustment  of  the 
lens.  Dr.  Gould  on  the  effects  of  eye-strain.  Importance 
of  the  teeth  in  relation  to  saving  waste  of  vitaHty. 

XIV.  Overstrain     in     Education:       Conditions      Affecting 

Endurance 263 

Handicaps  to  endurance.  Why  people  differ  in  power  of 
endurance.  Training  for  mental  endurance.  Training 
can  be  overdone.  "OfT  days."  The  law  of  economy  in 
developing  and  maintaining  organs.  Organs  that  are  not 
used  tend  to  degenerate.  Intelligence  is  in  the  ascend- 
ancy. The  price  of  "refined"  training.  Hardening  the 
body.  New  social  conditions  make  our  problem  a  very 
complicated  one.  Overeating  and  under-cleaning. 
Health  and  cleanliness.  Blue  Monday.  Energy  in  re- 
lation to  indoor  air.  What  are  the  requirements  for  good 
ventilation?  The  toxic  effect  of  "dead"  air.  The  role 
played  by  clothing  in  maintaining  vigor.  Energ>'  in  re- 
lation to  indoor  temperature.  Arranging  a  heating  system 
so  as  to  overcome  inequality  in  temperature  between  head 
and  floor  levels. 


xlv  CONTENTS 

PART    ITT 

EXERCISES    IN    ANALYSIS,    INTERPRETATION, 
INVESTIGATION   AND   A Pl^IJ CATION 

CHAPTER  PACE 

I.    Motive  Forces  in  Development  :     Physical  Well-being     2qi 

II.    Motive    Forces    in    Development  :    Social,    Intellec- 
tual ANT>  Esthetic  Well-being 295 

III.     Primitive   Modes    of    Adaptivk    Activity:    Trial    and 

Success;  Imitation ,^oi 

I\'.    Higher    Forms     or    Adaptive     Activity:     Conception; 

Symbolization ;  Imagination;  Reason     .        .        .        -310 

\'.      EXPRESSIONAL    ACTFV'ITIES  :       VoCAL,     FeATURAL,     POSTURAL, 

Gestural 319 

vi.     expressional  acti\'ities :    graphic,  pictorlal  .  325 

VII.    The  Development  of  Coordination  .        .        .        .  329 

VIII.    The  Development  of  Inhibition  ;  the  Neurological  and 

Psychological  View 332 

IX.  The  Development  of  Inhibition;  Restraining  Forces  .  338 

X.  Activities  Peculiar  to  Adolescence 344 

XI.  Dynamic  Education:   General  Principles         .        .  356 

XII.  Dynamic  Education:   The  Role  of  Suggestion       .  368 

XIII.  Overstrain  in  Education:   Wasteful  Practices     .  377 

XIV.  Overstrain  in   Education:     Conditions    Affecting   En- 

durance        390 

Authors  Referred  to  or  Quoted  in  the  Text    ....    395 
Index 397 


FIGURES    IN   THE    TEXT 


1.  Children's  Passion  for  Swimming  and  Playing  Games  in  the  Water 

2.  Children's  Passion  for  Constructive  Activities 

3.  The  Nomadic  Impulse  during  the  Teens 

4.  Children's  Interest  in  Dramatic  Activities  . 

5.  Children's  Passion  for  Impersonation  . 

6.  The  Animal  Brain  as  Compared  with  That  of  Man 

7.  Phrenological  Chart 

8.  Chart  Illustrating  Chiromancy    .... 

9.  Studies  in  the  Expression  of  the  Brow 

10.  Studies  in  the  Expression  of  the  Lips  . 

11.  Studies  in  the  Expression  of  the  Eyes  ... 

12.  The  Evolution  of  the  Letter  M    . 

13.  Examples  of  Pictorial  Writing      .... 
13  a.     Examples  of  Pictorial  Writing  .... 

14.  A  Child's  Drawing  for  "Jack  and  the  Bean  Stalk" 

15.  A  Child's  Drawing  for  "  Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 
15  a.  Second  Drawing  for  "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 
15  /).     Third  Drawing  for  "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 

16.  Fourth  Drawing  for  "Johnny-Look-in-the-Air" 

17.  Fifth  Drawing  for  "Johnny-Look-in-thc-Air" 

18.  Effect  of  Children's  Efforts  to  Perform  Coordinated  Tasks 

19.  Activities  Requiring  Use  of  the  Large  Muscles  Principally 

20.  Tasks  That  Do  Not  Require  Fine  Coordination  . 

21.  Tasks  Requiring  Varying  Degrees  of  Coordination 

22.  The  Brains  of  ((7)  Normal  Adult ;    (b)  Adult  Idiot ;    (c)  New- 

born Child        ........ 

23.  Scene  in  the  Vicinity  of  a  Public  School  in  a  Large  City 

24.  Competitive  Games  for  Girls        ..... 

25.  Indoor  Games      ........ 

26.  Curve  Showing  Annual  Increase  in  Endurance,  Vital  Capacity 

Weight  and  Grip  of  Right  Hand 

27.  Scene  in  an  American  Dance  Hall 


PAGE 

14 
29 

31 

46 
65 

80 
82 

85 
87 

04 
108 
IIO 

no 

1X2 
IIQ 

120 

121 
124 
124 

132 
134 

i.?8 

141 
144 

147 
150 

170 
182 


XVI 


FIGURES   IN   THi:  TEXT 


28.  Boys  in  the  Early  Adolescent  Period   . 

29.  An  Educational  Object  Lesson 

30.  Learning  Tables  of  Measurement  by  Actual  Use 

31.  Judging  Different  \  arielies  of  Corn 
^2.  Fourteen  Nationalities  in  One  School  . 
S3.  Plethysmographic  Record  from  the  Arm  of  a  Sleeping  Person 

34.  Record  Showing  Effect  of  Noise  on  a  Sleeping  Subject 

35.  Different  Styles  of  Penholders      .... 

36.  A  Posture  Frequently  Seen  in  Home  and  School 

37.  Overdoing  the  P^ffort  to  Maintain  Erect  Posture 

38.  Postures  That  Lead  to  Deformities 
3Q.  Posture  Induced  by  a  Too  High  Scat  . 

40.  Posture  Induced  by  Relation  of  Seat  to  Desk 

41.  Effect  of  Too  Small  Distance  between  Seat  and  Desk 

42.  Posture  Induced  by  Too  Small  Desk  and  Chair  . 

43.  Posture  Induced  by  Too  Great  Distance   between   Seat    and 

Desk 

44.  Proper  Adjustment  of  Desk  and  Chair 

45.  Posture  Induced  by  Too  High  Desk 

46.  Muscles  of  the  Eyeball 

47.  The  Normal  Eye 

48.  The  Shortsighted  or  Myopic  Eye 
40-  The  Longsighted  or  Hyperopic  Eye 

50.  The  Double  Concave  Lens  . 

5 1 .  Concave  Lens  to  Correct  Myopia 

52.  The  Double  Convex  Lens 

53.  Convex  Lens  to  Correct  Longsightedness 

54.  The  Astigmatic  Dial    .... 

55.  Chart  Showing  Astigmatism 

56.  A  Shortsighted  Astigmatic  Eye    . 

57.  Another  Type  of  Shortsighted  Astigmatic  Eye 

58.  The  Longsighted  Astigmatic  Eye 

59.  An  Astigmatic  Eye  in  Which  Rays  Focus  on  the  Retina  in  One 

Meridian  and  behind  the  Retina  in  Another  Meridian 

60.  Astigmatic  Eye  in  Which  Rays  Focus  in  Front  of  the  Retina  in 

One  Meridian  and  behind  the  Retina  in  Another  Meridian 

61.  Postures  Which  Determine  Mental  States    .... 

62.  Seating  Which  Will  Secure  Erect  Posture    .... 


247 

247 
254 
255 


FIGURES  IN  THE  TEXT 


XV 11 


FIOCRE 

63.  Fairhope  Method  of  Inducing  Children  to  Relax 

64.  School  Facilities  for  Relaxation   . 

65.  Outdoor  Calisthenics 

66.  Competitive  Games  Which  Develop  Endurance 

67.  The  Chief  Malady  of  the  Schoolroom  . 

68.  The  Nomadic  Impulse 

69.  The  Throwing  Impulse 

70.  Operating  a  Linotype  Machine 

71.  Work  for  Backward  Children 

72.  A  Study  in  Expression 

73.  A  Study  in  Expression 

74.  Children's  Spontaneous  Drawings 

75.  Children's  Spontaneous  Drawings 

76.  Children's  Spontaneous  Drawings 

77.  Relative  Proportions  of  Child  and  Adult 

78.  Relations  of  Adolescent  Boys  and  Girls 
7Q.  Cultivating  the  Soil 

80.  The  Meeting-Place  of  the  Gang  . 

81.  Dynamic  Methods  of  Teaching  Pyramids  and  Cones 

82.  Learning  How  to  Take  Care  of  a  Baby 

83.  Learning  How  to  Make  a  Bed 

84.  One  Method  of  Lighting  a  Schoolroom 
8^.  Curvature  of  the  Spine 


PAOE 

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296 

317 
321 
322 
323 
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326 
333 
352 
353 
3.S4 
364 
365 
366 
381 
382 


PART   ONE 
DYNAMIC   ASPECTS   OF   MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND 
EDUCATION 

CHAPTER   I 

MOTIVE   FORCES   IN  DEVELOPMENT:   PHYSICAL  WELL- 
BEING 

A  COMPLICATED  subjcct  may  perhaps  best  be  introduced  by 
a.  simple  illustration.     In  the  spring  one  plants  a  bean  seed  in 
moist  earth.    Soon  the  young  plant  will  break  through  ^  g^j^pig 
the  soil.     Roots  will  push  downward  into  the  earth,  illustration 
and  stalk,  branches   and  leaves  will  appear  above  and  r6ie  of 
the  earth.     If  there  is  an  obstruction  in  the  path  of  <i"vmg forces 
the    roots,    they    will    turn   out  of    their   course   in   order    to 
avoid  it.     So  above  the  soil,  —  if  the  space  directly  overhead 
is  already  occupied  by  another  plant,  the  new  one  will  bend 
this  way  or  that  so  as  to  take  advantage  of  any  unoccupied 
space.     Finally  blossoms  will  appear  and  then  the  seeds  will 
develop.     When  the  seeds  are  matured  the  plant  will  disintegrate. 

It  is  apparent  that  the  ultimate  purpose  which  governs  the 
activities  of  the  plant  in  its  Hfe  career  is  the  production  of  seed, 
and  every  detail  of  its  development  has  reference  to  the  attain- 
ment of  this  goal.  It  seeks  to  fasten  itself  in  the  earth  so  that 
it  will  not  be  torn  up  by  the  winds.  It  struggles  to  obtain 
moisture  and  constructive  materials  which  are  essential  to  the 
building  of  the  supporting  structures  necessary  to  bear  the  leaves 
and  seeds.  It  develops  foliage  as  thickly  as  space  will  permit 
in  order  that  it  may  secure  and  digest  carbon  dioxide  in  suffi- 

3 


4  MENTAL   Di:\  KLOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

cient  quantity  lor  its  needs.  An  observer  taking  note  of  the 
development  of  the  plant  up  to  its  flowering  stage,  but  no  further, 
might  think  that  it  developed  roots,  stalk,  branches,  leaves  and 
flowers  as  ends  in  themselves,  but  he  would  be  in  error ;  because 
these  are  all  only  means  to  an  ulterior  end  —  the  perpetuation 
of  the  species. 

As  one  watches  the  plant  struggling  to  elaborate  its  root, 
branch,  leaf  and  flower  systems,  he  becomes  convinced  that 
there  are  forces  within  it  which  continually  urge  toward  a  definite 
objective,  often  even  in  the  face  of  serious  difficulties.  Of  course, 
the  plant  must  use  the  moisture,  the  light  and  the  air  in  its 
environment  in  order  to  accomplish  its  purpose  ;  but  the  manner 
in  which  and  the  degree  to  which  these  facihties  are  utilized  are 
determined  by  the  driving  forces  within  the  plant.  The  gardener 
can  assist  it  by  removing  the  obstacles  to  the  attainment  of  its 
aim  and  by  furnishing  it  with  needed  materials  so  that  it  may  ac- 
complish its  object  without  hindrance  or  diversion  or  arrest; 
but  this  is  all  the  gardener  can  do  for  the  plant.  He  cannot  alter 
its  purpose ;  he  cannot  create  any  forces  witliin  it ;  he  can  merely 
assist  it  or  hinder  it  in  realizing  its  purpose. 

So  much  by  way  of  introduction.  We  may  now  ask  —  Is  the 
direction  which  the  child  takes  at  every  point  in  his  development 
due  to  the  pressure  of  internal  forces  as  in  the  case  of  the  plant, 
and  are  his  activities  dependent  upon  the  interaction  of  these 
forces  with  environmental  objects  and  conditions?  Comparing 
the  child  when  he  first  comes  among  us  with  the  bean  seed,  we 
note  that  he  is  well-nigh  infinitely  complex.  He  has  an  extremely 
complicated  mechanism  which  suggests  that  he  is  designed  to 
engage  in  exceedingly  complex  enterprises.  In  the  bean  one 
can  with  the  unaided  eye  make  out  all  the  essential  mechanisms, 
and  with  the  microscope  he  can  observe  them  in  minute  detail. 
But  with  the  child,  most  of  the  important  mechanisms  are  hidden 
from  view,  and  they  cannot  be  examined  at  all  so  long  as  they 


MOTIVE  FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT         5 

remain  intact  in  his  organism.  It  is  even  more  true  of  the  child's 
mental  than  it  is  of  his  physical  organism,  that  it  is  so  complex, 
even  when  we  first  see  him,  that  no  one  has  been  able  completely 
to  examine  or  describe  it.  So  it  will  be  understood  at  the  outset 
that  one  cannot  hope  to  deal  conclusively  with  all  the  traits  and 
activities  of  the  individual  which  indicate  the  directions  which 
the  motive  forces  in  his  life  impel  him  to  take. 

One  cannot  doubt  that  the  motive  force  first  to  be  manifested 
in  the  child's  life  relates  to  the  maintenance  and  development 
of  his  physical  organism.  At  the  moment  of  birth  physical 
he  is  equipped  with  mechanisms  which  function  ef-  welfare 
fectively  to  keep  the  body  alive ;  and  not  only  to  keep  it  ahve, 
but  also  to  cause  it  to  increase  in  size,  strength  and  efficiency. 
Upon  the  first  contact  with  air  the  function  of  breathing  is 
estabhshed,  and  thereafter  it  proceeds  without  much  if  any  at- 
tention from  the  individual.  Even  before  birth  the  heart  begins 
to  beat,  and  throughout  life  it  continues  to  perform  its  duties 
without  supervision  on  the  child's  part.  Before  birth,  too,  the 
mechanisms  concerned  in  the  assimilation  of  food  and  the  con- 
struction of  tissues  begin  to  function,  and  hardly  is  the  child 
born  before  he  commences  to  plead  for  food.  During  the  ante- 
natal period,  he  secures  nutrition  without  the  use  of  the  mouth 
and  accessory  equipment,  but  when  he  becomes  detached  from 
his  mother  and  must  secure  his  nutrition  through  the  mouth, 
all  the  acts  necessary  to  convey  food  to  the  digestive  mechanisms 
as  well  as  to  digest  it  and  convert  it  into  tissues  are  ready  to  be 
performed.  The  child's  sucking  and  swallowing  activities  are 
exceedingly  complex,  but  normally  they  can  be  executed  at 
birth  with  complete  success. 

As  one  observes  the  child  during  the  first  weeks  he  cannot  fail 
to  be  impressed  with  the  predominance  of  the  activities  concerned 
with  the  securing  and  digesting  of  food.  His  appeals  and  pro- 
tests during  the  early  months  have  reference  to  the  relief  of 


6      MENIAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

hunger  more  largely  than  to  any  other  need.  Whatever  he 
seizes  in  his  hands  or  whatever  touches  him  on  lips  or  cheeks 
Predomi  ^c  sccks  to  convey  to  his  mouth.  The  first  sign  of 
nance  of       awareness  of  the  world   about  him   has  reference  to 

the  food- 
securing        his  mother  as  the  source  of  his  food.     And  when  he 

imp  se  j^,^^  secured  his  food  he  falls  asleep  and  remains 
asleep  while  the  food  is  being  digested  and  assimilated.  His 
waking  periods  during  the  first  three  months  occur  mainly 
for  the  purpose  of  feeding.  When  he  has  digested  one 
meal  he  awakens  to  secure  another.  Normally  the  very  young 
child  will  not  run  over  his  feeding  period  fifteen  minutes 
without  an  appeal  for  food.  The  impulse  to  eat  is  more 
active  than  the  needs  of  the  body  require,  as  every  mother 
well  knows ;  the  typical  child  will  eat  more  than  he  can  as- 
similate. And  it  is  comparatively  so  easy  now  to  obtain  an 
excess  of  food  that  many  of  the  individual's  troubles  arise  out 
of  his  uncontrolled  impulse  to  eat.  Apparently  the  impulse 
was  established  when  food  was  less  abundant  and  less  easily 
secured  than  is  the  case  at  the  present  time ;  when  man  had  to 
depend  upon  what  nature  in  her  original  state  offered  him,  he  had 
to  gorge  himself  in  order  to  secure  enough,  because  the  occa- 
sions when  he  could  secure  it  were  relatively  infrequent,  and 
such  food  as  he  obtained  was  not  highly  nutritious.  It  is  as 
though  the  child  remembered  this  earlier  experience  of  his  an- 
cestors ;  but  he  does  not  take  into  consideration  the  changed 
conditions  wliich  make  food  abundant  now  and  easily  secured. 

This  impulse  to  eat  more  than  the  needs  of  the  body  require 
plays  a  role  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  The  individual  of 
any  age  who  is  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  muscular  toil  nor- 
mally consumes  more  food  than  his  organism  requires  for  main- 
tenance and  efficiency.  Many  of  the  ills  that  afflict  mature 
individuals  are  due  to  the  impulse  to  consume  food  in  greater 
quantities  than  can  be  utilized  by  the  organism.     This  impulse 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT  7 

apparently  outlives  most  other  impulses ;  the  old  man  enjoys 
his  food  after  he  has  ceased  to  take  an  interest  in  much  else, 
and  even  after  nature  has  destroyed  the  mechanisms  necessary 
for  the  proper  mastication  of  food  and  the  elimination  of  unused 
portions.  The  disharmonies  of  old  age  probably  arise  mainly 
out  of  the  passion  to  consume  food  beyond  the  measure  that  it 
can  be  utilized  in  the  organism. 

It  may  be  mentioned  further  that  social  relations  have  to  a 
considerable  degree  developed  in  connection  with  eating.  Eat- 
ing plays  a  prominent  role  in  children's  parties  and  in  adults' 
social  pastimes.  Among  primitive  people  celebrations  relate 
quite  largely  to  feasting ;  they  come  together  for  social  pur- 
poses when  they  have  secured  a  supply  of  food.  The  chief 
incitement  to  social  festivities  is  good  fortune  in  obtaining  food. 
Even  among  advanced  peoples,  prominent  festivities  have  re- 
lation to  prosperity  in  respect  to  their  crops ;  they  give  thanks 
to  the  Giver  of  Gifts  when  they  have  a  good  harvest, — when 
their  bins  are  full  of  corn,  their  cellars  of  vegetables  and  meat, 
and  their  larders  of  flour  and  fruit. 

In  human  life  the  impulse  to  secure  food  in  order  to  main- 
tain and  develop  the  organism  has  largely  determined  the  char- 
acter and  degree  of  development  of  muscular,  nervous  and 
intellectual  structures  and  functions.  Keeping  this  fact  in  mind 
it  may  be  asked  in  passing,  —  If  the  individual  can  secure  an 
abundance  of  food  without  the  full  use  of  body  and  mind,  will 
he  develop  properly  and  completely?  It  would  unquestion- 
ably be  an  aid  to  his  development  if  he  could  not  secure  food 
so  easily  as  he  often  does  in  these  times.  The  individual  who 
is  frequently  hungry,  or  at  least  who  is  not  surfeited  with  food 
will  develop  a  more  capable  body  and  more  agile  mind  than  one 
who  is  never  hungry  because  he  is  continually  satiated.  The 
over-fed  child  is  lethargic  in  body  and  dull  in  mind.  Of 
course,  the  under-fed  child  suffers  also  since  he  cannot  secure 


8      MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

nutrition  enough  to  maintain  vigorous  physical  and  mental  de- 
velopment. But  of  the  two  unfortunate  conditions,  it  would 
probably  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  individual  in  his  develop- 
ment to  experience  a  scarcity  of  food  rather  than  to  have  a  sur- 
plus of  it.  One  cannot  avoid  feeling  some  concern  about  the 
future  of  a  people  whose  children  can  secure  an  abundance  of 
food  for  the  asking,  and  who  arc  never  required  to  put  forth 
sustained  physical  efTort  or  to  exercise  intellectual  keenness  and 
accurate  judgment  in  order  to  obtain  food  adequate  to  their 
needs. 

Manifestly  the  individual  could  not  preserve  his  organism 
from  annihilation  if  he  did  not  possess  other  impulses  than 
ggjjj  those  concerned  with  securing  food.     In  the  very  be- 

protective  ginning  he  must  rely  upon  caretakers  to  safeguard  him 
impu  ses  fi-Q^-^  destruction  by  hostile  forces.  When  he  is  cold  or 
his  clothing  is  too  tight  or  he  is  suffering  from  hunger  or  colic, 
he  appeals  to  his  mother  or  nurse  for  aid.  When  a  loud  noise 
occurs  in  his  vicinity  he  cries  for  protection,  as  though  he  as- 
sociated a  loud  noise  with  a  destructive  agent.  As  he  develops, 
the  range  of  experiences  which  will  cause  him  to  look  to  his 
caretakers  for  protection  constantly  increases  until  he  gains 
a  large  measure  of  self-reliance.  The  three-year-old  child  is 
likely  to  be  incessantly  making  appeals  to  his  parents,  teacher, 
or  an  older  brother  or  sister  to  shield  him  from  threatened  harm, 
—  from  lightning  and  thunder,  from  strange  animals  of  all 
sorts  and  often  from  familiar  animals,  even  pets,  from  rough 
treatment  by  his  playmates,  and  so  on  ad  libitum.  At  sixteen 
he  normally  ceases  to  ask  those  about  him  to  safeguard  him 
from  harm,  for  the  reason  that  he  has  gained  confidence  in  his 
abihty  to  protect  himself.  More  especially  he  has  learned  that 
the  sources  of  possible  harm  which  harassed  him  in  his  earliest 
years  were  unreal  and  so  he  no  longer  fears  them. 

At  two.  three,  or  four  years   of    age    the    child    incessantly 


MOTI\  E   FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  0 

asks  his  caretakers  to  relieve  him  of  pains,  whether  incurred 
in  his  play  or  arising  from  within.  Even  sHght  discomfort 
will  cause  him  to  appeal  vigorously  for  aid.  Any  painful 
accident  or  mishap  will  send  him  running  for  rehef  to  father, 
mother,  teacher,  or  someone  else  in  whom  he  has  confidence. 
His  alertness  in  seeking  immediate  relief  from  all  pain  indicates 
that  nature  did  not  wish  to  take  any  chances  in  safeguarding 
the  individual's  organism  from  experiences  which  might  handi- 
cap or  destroy  it.  In  the  course  of  development  this  readiness 
to  seek  relief  from  all  pain  however  slight  becomes  subdued, 
probably  because  the  individual  learns  that  many  of  the  minor 
aches  and  pains  and  accidents  will  do  no  serious  injury  to  his 
organism  and  so  they  may  be  ignored.  Indeed,  in  time,  by 
the  ninth  or  tenth  year  as  a  rule,  boys  especially  cultivate 
a  bravadic  indifference  to  these  minor  ills  and  misfortunes. 
They  take  pride  in  being  able  to  endure  them  without  com- 
plaint, which  was  not  in  any  respect  true  at  an  earlier  age.  This 
fortitude  in  reaction  upon  sKght  misfortune  or  minor  distress 
of  any  sort  increases  up  to  maturity,  so  that  the  young  man 
or  woman  may  undergo  considerable  suffering  without  com- 
plaint and  without  making  any  attempt  to  secure  relief. 

This   phenomenon   furnishes   an   illustration   of   the   conflict 
of  driving  forces  which  frequently  arises  in  the  course  of  de- 
velopment.    In     this     instance     the     individual     is  _    flj .  ^ 
equipped  at  the  outset  with  the  impulse  to  communi-  motive 
cate  every  pain,  ache  or  accident  to  those  who  may 
be  able  to  relieve  him.     But  later  there  awakens  an  impulse, 
directly  in  contrast  with  the  first  one,  which  causes  the  in- 
dividual to  take  pride  in  bearing  his  misfortunes  stoically,  and 
sometimes  deliberately  to  bring  pain  upon  himself  in  order  that 
he  may  show  his  indifference  or  superiority  to  it.     In  seeking 
an  explanation  of  this  apparent  conflict  of  motive  forces,  one 
may  suppose   that  the  very  young  child   should   freely  com- 


10  MENTAI,   DFAKl.OPMENT  AND    KDUCATION 

municalc  all  his  pain  and  distress  since  he  is  uiihI)1c  to  i)iotcct 
himselt  from  the  causes  thereof ;  but  later  on  when  he  gains  in 
power  of  self-protection  he  may  be  depended  upon  to  discrimi- 
nate between  the  minor  and  the  major  sources  of  danger ;  and 
in  his  adaptation  to  his  environment  it  will  be  of  advantage 
to  him  to  cultivate  indifference  to  all  pain  of  lesser  importance. 
Further,  as  his  organism  develops  it  acquires  resistance  to 
hostile  agencies  which  at  the  outset  might  destroy  it ;  and  just 
in  the  measure  that  it  increases  in  stabiUty  and  endurance,  the 
individual  may  neglect  all  painful  experience  of  minor  con- 
sequence because  his  organism  can  survive  such  experience. 

A  special  phase  of  the  impulse  in  question  should  be  noted 
particularly  -  -  the  attitude  of  the  individual  toward  the  treat- 
ment of  disease  and  especially  surgical  treatment. 
to  remedial  Normally  the  child  resists  the  application  of  remedial 
treatment  measures  which  involve  the  taking  of  medicine,  the 
use  of  hydro-  or  electro-therapy  and  particularly  the  employ- 
ment of  surgery.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  is  equipped 
with  a  deep  distrust  of  medical  and  surgical  agencies.  In 
many  households  there  is  continual  conflict  between  adults  and 
children  in  respect  to  the  use  of  medicine  and  all  remedial  meas- 
ures. The  child  can  give  no  satisfactory  reason  for  his  attitude 
except  that  he  does  not  "like"  medicine  or  electric-light  baths, 
and  so  on.  Even  when  his  medicines  are  sugar-coated  he  will 
set  up  effectual  resistance  to  taking  them  so  long  as  they  are 
known  to  be  medicine ;  his  instinctive  resistance  is  against 
taking  anything  which  is  designed  to  produce  some  change 
within  him.  At  the  same  time  he  will  without  hesitancy  eat 
unknown  fruits  or  berries  that  he  picks  in  the  woods  or  along  the 
wayside.  But  there  is  no  mystery  about  these;  he  regards 
them  in  the  light  of  fruits  and  berries  that  he  knows  and  he  con- 
cludes that  they  will  not  produce  any  internal  disturbance. 
Unquestionably  the  hostility  to  medicines  is  an  expression  of 


]M0T1\E   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT  ii 

the  deep-seated  impulse  to  protect  the  organism  from  harmful 
agencies,  although  this  instinct,  like  others  to  be  noted  later,  often 
operates  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  child  under  present-day- 
conditions. 

When  it  comes  to  surgical  treatment  one  can  see  how  intense 
is  the  impulse  to  protect  the  organism  from  mutilation.  The 
typical  child  up  to  the  teens  will  in  the  face  of  great  rewards 
resist  the  advice  of  parents  and  teachers  to  have  a  tooth  pulled ; 
and  never  will  he  consent  to  have  any  part  of  his  body  cut  or 
removed,  even  though  it  may  be  the  source  of  excruciating 
pain.  As  a  rule,  surgeons  must  force  a  child  to  submit  to  an 
anaesthetic  in  order  that  they  may  perform  an  operation.  A 
surgeon  of  experience  would  never  ask  young  children  whether 
or  not  they  would  be  willing  to  have  an  operation  performed. 
He  makes  preparation  for  the  operation  without  the  children's 
knowledge  of  what  will  happen  to  them,  for  otherwise  they 
will  assume  a  resistant  and  even  defiant  attitude,  which,  how- 
ever, is  more  reflex  than  deliberate. 

In  due  time,  the  individual  will  normally  reach  the  place 
where  the  instinctive  resistance  to  medicine  and  therapeutic 
and  surgical  measures  of  all  sorts  will  be  held  in  check  by  the 
appreciation  of  the  benefit  which  will  be  derived  from  such 
treatment ;  but  even  the  majority  of  adults  can  only  with  great 
•exertion  bring  themselves  to  submit  to  treatments  which  pro- 
duce marked  physiological  effects  even  though  they  are  not 
accompanied  by  much  pain.  Up  to  the  last  moment  of  life  the 
instinct  to  avoid  mutilation  or  pain  is  profound,  and  with  many 
persons  it  constitutes  an  impelling,  dominant,  controlHng  force. 

To  a  child,  a  future  good  in  the  face  of  a  present  pain  is  not 
to  be  considered.  Beginning  with  the  teens,  though,  the  indi- 
vidual normally  l^egins  to  acquire  power  to  control  instinct 
and  impulse  in  view  of  remote  benefits  to  be  derived  from  such 
control,  and  with  a  large  proportion  of  adults  present  discom- 


12      MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

fort  or  even  intense  pain  will  be  endured  if  thereby  greater 
good  for  the  future  will  be  likely  to  be  assured.  This  latter 
attitude  is  probably  increasing  in  the  race.  It  may  be  de- 
veloping pari  passu  with  the  development  of  intelligence,  by 
means  of  which  forces  may  be  applied  to  present  conditions  in 
order  to  obtain  ultimate  good.  In  earlier  times,  when  the 
framework  of  the  instincts  pertaining  to  self-protection  was 
elaborated,  immediate  response  to  situations  seemed  to  the 
individual  to  be  essential  to  the  welfare  of  his  organism.  If 
an  experience  was  painful,  he  concluded  it  should  be  avoided 
because  the  pain  would  never  be  the  result  of  agencies  deliber- 
ately employed  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  remote  beneficial 
values.  This  may  account  for  the  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
individual  as  he  develops  toward  the  use  of  remedies  of  every 
kind  for  present  ills  —  his  resistance  to  them  in  the  beginning 
and  his  willingness  to  undergo  them  as  he  approaches  maturity. 
In  connection  with  the  preservation  of  the  organism,  which 
constitutes  the  first  great  driving  force  in  development,  one 
should  not  fail  to  inquire  to  what  extent  the  individual 
to  seek  seeks  protection  from  the  elements  —  from  the  cold, 

protection      ^-^^  wind,   and    the  weather.     It  has  already  been 

from  wind  •  i       i 

and  noted  that  in  the  early  months  he  cries  when  he  be- 

weather  ^omes  chilled,  and  his  caretaker  comes  to  his  rescue 
and  wraps  clothing  about  him  or  makes  his  bed  warmer.  One 
might  expect  that  he  would  show  the  same  eagerness  to  secure 
clothing  for  protection  as  food  for  nourishment,  but  the  young 
child  manifests  no  activity  which  has  relation  to  securing  or 
retaining  clothing.  In  taking  his  food  he  clings  to  the  nipple, 
and  if  he  loses  it,  he  becomes  extremely  active  in  his  efforts  to 
obtain  it  again.  But  if  he  kicks  off  his  clothing,  he  merely  cries 
when  he  becomes  cold.  He  seems  to  possess  no  instinct  which 
enables  him  to  keep  in  contact  with  his  clothes.  If  it  were  not 
for  the  constant  watchfulness  of  his  caretakers,  he  would  be 


MOTIVE   FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  13 

without  clothing  all  the  time.  Even  three-  or  four-year-old 
children  who  are  suffering  from  the  cold  because  of  torn,  wet, 
or  insufficient  clothing  do  not  manifest  any  ingenuity  respecting 
methods  of  securing  reUef  from  their  distress.  When  they  are 
hungry  they  search  eagerly  for  food,  but  when  they  are  cold 
they  do  not  search  eagerly  for  clothing.  Continuously  through- 
out the  developmental  period  there  is  often  conflict  between 
caretakers  and  children  because  the  latter  go  ill-clad  or  retain 
wet  clothing.  Girls  in  the  teens  frequently  cause  distress  to 
their  parents  because  of  their  scanty  clothing  —  thin  shoes  and 
the  like. 

It  should  not   be  inferred    that  the  individual   is  not  con- 
cerned in  any  way  about  clothing;    it  would  be  absurd  to  say 
that  the  girl  especially  is  indifferent  to  clothes.     But  interest  in 
her  interest  does  not  have  reference  primarily  to  pro-  clothing  for 

.  .  ^  ,  decoration 

tection  but  rather  to  ornamentation.  After  the  age  rather  than 
of  nine  or  ten  the  normal  girl  devotes  much  of  her  P'°t®'^*io" 
attention  to  decoration  by  means  of  clothing ;  her  mental  equip- 
ment is  exercised  quite  largely  with  respect  to  this  matter. 
Neither  is  the  boy  indifferent  to  ornamentation  by  clothing  after 
he  enters  the  teens,  but  his  thought  and  energy  are  not  so  largely 
devoted  to  this  problem  as  is  the  case  with  the  girl.  One  of  the 
strongest  motive  forces  in  the  life  of  the  adolescent  girl  is  the 
attainment  of  personal  attractiveness  through  ornamentation, 
but  this  plays  only  a  minor  role  in  the  boy's  life.  While  the 
girl  is  spending  much  of  her  time  in  devising  articles  for  per- 
sonal adornment,  the  boy  is  competing  with  his  fellows  in  running, 
jumping,  cHmbing,  wrestling,  hunting,  fishing,  swimming,  tak- 
ing hikes  into  the  woods,  shooting  at  birds  and  squirrels,  mak- 
ing caves,  playing  baseball,  football,  building  bonfires,  steal- 
ing apples,  raiding  property,  and  so  on.  A  discussion  of  the  deco- 
rative activities  of  the  girl  and  the  adventurous  activities  of 
the  boy  will  be  undertaken  farther  along. 


M 


MENTAI.    1)K\  KI.OI'MKN  r   AND    HI  )r(  ATIOX 


lo   return    to   a    consideration    of    motive    forces    relating   to 
physical  protection;    the  child  is  equipped  at  Mrtli  with  a  well- 
developed  mechanism  for  fear  responses.     The  ear- 
Fear  as  a  ^  _  _      ^ 

protective      liest    responses   occur   in    reaction    to    loud    noises ; 
*^^"*  mothers  well  understand  this  and  they  seek  to  i)ro- 

tect   their   children    from   liarsh   voices   or   slamming   doors   or 
heavy  footsteps  in  the  nursery,  or  falling  objects,  and  so  on.    As 


Fig.    I.  —  Normal  children  are  passidiiaiily  lund  of  swimming,  paddling  in  pools,  and 
playing  games  in  the  water.     (Sec  exercise  1 1,  page  2g4.) 

the  individual  develops,  the  range  of  his  fear  responses  increases 
greatly  for  a  time  and  then  it  decreases.  The  year-old  child 
normally  is  afraid  of  all  strange  things  —  strange  animals, 
strange  people,  strange  places,  strange  situations  of  every  kind. 
It  is  as  though  nature  said  to  him  :  "  Danger  lurks  in  every- 
thing which  you  do  not  understand.  Deal  with  it  cautiously. 
Keep  close  to  your  protector  when  you  are  in  the  presence  of  any 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN  DEVELOPMENT  15 

new  animal  or  person  or  in  any  unfamiliar  situation.  Run  to 
your  mother  when  you  hear  the  thunder  or  a  strange  voice  in 
the  house  or  barking  dogs  or  anything  of  the  kind.  Do  not 
stray  far  from  home  lest  you  get  out  of  reach  of  your  protectors. 
Especially  be  apprehensive  in  the  dark.  Do  not  go  into  or  re- 
main in  the  dark  alone  because  danger  lurks  in  dark  places." 

A  few  popular  writers  on  children's  traits  have  advanced  the 
theory  that  they  would  never  manifest  fear  unless  they  had  been 
made  afraid.  No  careful  observer  of  childhood  could  hold  such 
a  view.  There  are  many  records  of  children  who  have  been 
very  carefully  safeguarded  in  every  way  from  harmful  ex- 
perience or  stories  suggesting  fear,  but  such  children  have 
exhibited  the  typical  fears  in  the  course  of  development.  In 
our  day  the  majority  of  parents  protect  their  children  from  all 
experiences  which  will  suggest  fear  of  the  dark  or  of  strangers 
or  of  animals  and  so  on,  but  only  slowly  do  their  children  grow 
to  have  confidence  in  strange  things  and  especially  in  the  dark. 
One  cannot  doubt  that  nature  has  equipped  the  child  with  fear 
responses  in  order  to  protect  him  from  dangerous  objects  and 
keep  him  out  of  perilous  situations.  Unfortunately  these  re- 
actions persist  for  a  period  under  changed  conditions  when 
there  is  no  longer  much  if  any  danger  to  the  child  in  the  dark 
or  in  contact  with  strange  persons  or  places.  Only  after  repeated 
experience  wherein  he  finds  that  no  harm  comes  to  him  from 
strange  persons  or  animals  or  from  moving  about  in  the  dark 
does  he  gain  control  of  his  fears. 

Fear  has  played  a  large  role  in  physical  and  mental  develop- 
ment, in  animal  as  well  as  in  human  life.     The  sensory  and 
intellectual  acumen  and  resourcefulness  of  animals  is  p^^j.  ^^  ^ 
due  as  largely  perhaps  to  the  apprehension  and  de-  motive 
tection  of  dangerous  objects  and  situations  as  to  the  deveiop- 
securing  of  food.     So  in  the  development  of  human  ™^°* 
intelligence,  fear  has  played  a  prominent  part  in  making  per- 


i6  MENTAL    DIAEI.OrMKNT   AND   EDUCATION 

ception  keener,  memory  more  faithful  and  dependable,  and 
reasoning  processes  more  acute  and  reliable.  Much  of  man's 
thinking  power,  speaking  popularly,  has  been  conserved  be- 
cause it  has  enabled  him  to  resolve  his  doubts  concerning  the 
oljjects  that  have  aroused  his  fears,  or  to  escape  from  them  or 
destroy  them  if  they  proved  to  be  a  real  menace  to  his  wel- 
fare. 

What  role  does  fear  play  in  the  development  of  the  child's 
intelligence?  One  cannot  answer  this  question  with  confi- 
dence. Even  after  the  most  careful  observation  of  the  child's 
activities  one  is  unable  to  determine  to  what  extent  fear  of 
objects  and  situations  incites  him  to  keen  intellectual  activity 
with  regard  to  these  objects  and  situations.  To  illustrate : 
a  child  is  learning  to  go  downstairs  without  falling.  There 
are  three  factors  operating  to  control  his  action :  first,  his  de- 
sire to  have  interesting  experiences  at  the  bottom  of  the  stairs ; 
second,  his  passion  to  master  the  task  of  going  downstairs;  and 
third,  his  wish  not  to  fall  and  injure  himself.  He  has  fallen 
before  and  he  is  afraid  of  falling  now,  so  he  gives  earnest  at- 
tention to  the  situation  before  him  so  that  he  may  avoid  his 
previous  experience.  At  the  same  time  he  studies  the  situa- 
tion carefully  in  order  that  he  may  repeat  the  pleasurable 
experience  of  getting  down  the  stairs  and  then  playing  on  the 
lower  floor  or  running  out-of-doors.  Which  is  the  strongest 
factor  in  stimulating  intellectual  activity,  ■ —  the  fear  of  harm, 
the  passion  to  master  a  task,  or  the  desire  for  pleasurable 
experience  at  the  conclusion  of  the  task? 

Precisely  the  same  situation  is  presented  in  the  individual's 
relation  to  a  dog.  Instinctively  he  is  afraid  of  it  and  yet 
he  desires  the  experience  of  playing  with  the  dog,  and  he  ob- 
serves the  animal  most  attentively  in  order  to  determine  what 
course  he  should  pursue.  Certainly  fear  is  a  driving  force  be- 
hind his  intellectual  processes  with  respect  to  the  dog,  and  so 


MOTIVE  FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT         17 

is  his  wish  for  phiyful  experience.  It  is  impossible  to  determine 
which  is  the  stronger  incentive  to  penetrating  and  sustained 
intellectual  activity.  It  may  be  said,  though,  that  the  younger 
the  child  the  more  important  is  the  role  of  fear  in  stimulating  in- 
tellectual action,  while  the  older  he  grows  the  weaker  fear  be- 
comes. By  the  time  the  individual  reaches  the  teens  his  in- 
tellectual processes  occur  primarily  for  the  purpose  of  enlarg- 
ing his  range  of  pleasuraT)le  experience.  They  occur  to  some 
extent  in  response  to  feelings  of  fear,  but  the  former  play  a  much 
larger  part  than  do  the  latter.  In  the  mature  man  or  woman 
fear  still  continues  to  play  a  part,  though  it  does  not  now  con- 
cern physical  objects  or  situations,  but  rather  social  relations. 
The  incentives  to  enlarge  one's  sphere  of  action  and  to  remove 
obstacles  which  stand  in  the  way  of  increasing  pleasure-giv- 
ing experiences  constitute  the  principal  stimuli  to  intellectual 
activity. 


CHAPTER   II 

MOTI\E  FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT:   SOCIAL, 
INTELLECrUAL  AND  .ESTHETIC  WELL-BEING 

As  early  as  Ihc  sixth  month  the  child  manifests  a  craving 

for  experiences  with  persons  as  distinguished  from  things.     He 

cries  to  be  with  his  mother,  and  in  his  featural  and 

for^experi°"  bodily  cxpressions  he  begins  to  show  delight  when 

ences  with     ].^[^  brothers  and  sisters  come  to  play  with  him.     From 

persons  _  ^  .  . 

this  point  on  for  many  years  his  desire  to  have  give- 
and-take  relations  with  persons  is  continually  broadened  and 
intensified.  He  often  seems  more  eager  to  secure  social  experi- 
ence than  to  protect  his  body  or  promote  his  physical  well- 
being.  As  early  as  the  fourth  year  a  child  will  often  leave  his 
food  to  play  with  a  companion.  He  will  cheerfully  incur  physi^d 
pain  in  order  that  he  may  visit  with  his  friends.  A  considerable 
part  of  the  punishment  visited  upon  many  children  from  the  age 
of  four  up  to  and  even  through  the  teens  is  due  to  their  eagerness 
to  leave  their  homes  or  their  work  to  be  with  comrades.  Boys 
and  girls  in  the  teens  will  often  undergo  hunger  and  cold  in 
order  that  they  may  dress  so  as  to  win  the  friendship  of  those 
whom  they  like ;  they  are  as  a  rule  more  or  less  indifferent  to 
their  physical  well-being  so  long  as  they  can  secure  and  retain 
the  good-will  and  confidence  of  their  friends.  A  youth  will 
often  endure  serious  physical  pain  without  a  murmur,  but  if  he 
is  neglected  by  his  friends  he  will  suffer  intensely.  He  will 
lose  his  appetite  for  food  ;  the  color  will  go  out  of  his  cheeks ; 
he  will  actually  decline  physically.     These  facts  are  mentioned 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN  DEVELOPMENT  19 

simply  to  impress  the  importance  and  to  emphasize  the  com- 
pelling character  of  the  motive  forces  that  relate  to  social 
experience. 

Before  liis  second  birthday  the  child  normally  evinces  a 
tendency  to  display  himself  for  the  comment  and  admiration 
of  persons  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  ''performs"  before  his  parents,  his 
brothers  and  sisters  and  even  his  little  companions.  The  very 
young  child  does  not,  of  course,  do  this  for  any  ulterior  pur- 
pose, and  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  adolescent  even  has  a  dis- 
tinct aim  in  view  in  disporting  himself  before  his  fellows.  The 
individual's  action  is  probably  not  determined  by  any  conscious 
appreciation  of  its  value.  It  is  in  no  sense  the  outcome  of  educa- 
tional influences.  It  may  be  modilied  by  experience,  but  the 
impulse  comes  wholly  from  within. 

The  passion  to  communicate  with  persons  is  as  profound  as 
the  passion  to  be  in  their  presence  or  to  display  oneself  before 
them.     Every  teacher  knows  that  it  is  next  to  im-  ^. 

•^  The  passion 

possible  to  prevent  pupils  in  the  elementary  or  even  to  com- 
in  the  high  school  from  communicating  with  one  an- 
other. Parents  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  train  a  child  so  that  he 
will  not  tell  to  every  one  who  will  listen  to  him  whatever  he  has 
observed  or  heard  or  every  experience  he  has  had  in  the  home. 
Nature  appears  to  say  to  him  :  "  Tell  everything  you  see  or  hear  or 
do  to  any  one  and  whatever  any  one  does  to  you.  Keep  nothing 
to  yourself."  Then  nature  follows  this  command  with  another  : 
"Listen  to  others  when  they  tell  their  experiences.  If  they 
seem  to  conceal  anything,  try  to  drag  it  out  of  them."  Urged  by 
this  profound  motive  to  share  his  experience  with  others  and  to 
cause  them  to  share  their  experiences  with  him,  the  individual 
goes  on  to  full  maturity  and  in  fact  throughout  his  life  com- 
muning with  his  fellows.  This  passion  to  communicate  never 
subsides,  though  it  may  take  different  directions  with  different 
persons,  and  it  may  become  narrowed  with  development  .so  that 


20  MENTAL   DEVELOrMKXT  AND   EDUCATION' 

an  iiulividual  may  become  reliccuL  with  r(.>pecL  lo  some  j)ersoiis 
and  certain  kinds  of  experiences ;  but  when  this  is  tiie  case  he  is 
likely  to  l)ecome  all  the  more  communicative  in  his  relations  with 
special  groups  of  persons  and  in  respect  to  particular  sorts  of 
experience. 

Perhaps  the  supreme  desire  of  the  in(H\idual  after  he  passes 
his  tenth  birthday  is  to  secure  the  confidence,  good-will  and 
—      ^  esteem  of  his  fellows.     He  wishes  to  be  thought  well 

The  strong-  ^^ 

est  force  of  by  them.  At  nine  or  ten  his  attitude  is  wholly 
wish  to  unreflective ;    he   responds   solely   to   the   urge   that 

secure  the      comes   from   within  I    but   at    the   same   time   he  is 

good-will 

of  one's         governed  very  largel}'  in  his  actions  by  his  wish  to 
°^^  have  his  companions  admire  him,  speak  well  of  him, 

praise  him,  come  to  visit  him,  and  the  like.  He  does  his  level 
best  in  order  that  he  may  secure  these  expressions  of  approval 
from  his  companions.  This  furnishes  a  constant  spur  to  the 
development  of  his  mental  powers.  His  intellectual  processes 
are  quickened  by  his  passion  to  act  so  as  to  win  approving 
expressions  from  his  group.  Fortunately  the  group  as  a  rule 
commends  activities  which  tend  toward  the  betterment  of  group 
life.  When  a  dull  boy  and  a  bright  boy  perform  before  the 
group,  the  bright  boy  will  receive  the  praise  because  he  can  do 
more  things  than  the  dull  one  and  do  them  more  skillfully  and 
readily.  Even  a  group  of  very  young  persons  will  approve  skill 
and  abiUty  as  contrasted  with  incompetency,  and  thus  the  group 
exerts  a  constant  pressure  upon  the  individual  to  do  his  best,  not 
only  intellectually  but  physically,  -  -  to  jump  as  high  as  he  can, 
to  run  as  fast  as  he  can,  to  throw  as  far  and  straight  as  he  can, 
and  so  on  ad  libitum.  In  due  course  the  approval  of  the  group 
will  become  an  incentive  to  ethical  action.  Even  a  six-year-old 
child  discovers  that  he  must  not  ''tattle"  on  his  fellows;  he 
must  not  be  a  "cry-baby";  he  must  not  appropriate  what 
does  not  belong  to  him  ;    he  must  take  his  turn  in  games ;    he 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT  21 

must  not  be  a  ''quitter"  ;  he  must  not  be  a  coward  ;  when  he  is 
attacked  he  must  defend  himself  and  his  group,  and  so  on.  The 
older  the  individual  grows  the  more  clearly  he  learns  these 
lessons  under  the  unconscious  tuition  of  the  group. 

In  his  social  adaptation  the  individual  meets  resistance, 
of  course,  just  as  he  does  in  his  physical  adjustment,  and 
he  is  equipped  with  a  profound  impulse  which  jy^^jj.  ^^ 
leads  him  to  seek  ways  and  means  to  overcome  a  motive 
social  resistance,  just  as  the  plant  bends  this  way 
and  that  in  order  to  surmount  barriers  to  its  development. 
The  principal  social  obstacles  wliich  the  individual  encounters 
are  persons  who  prevent  him  from  securing  praise  and  rewards 
from  the  group.  Any  boy  who  can  run  faster,  jump  higher, 
play  better  baseball  than  the  individual  can  well  be  looked 
upon  as  an  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  the  latter's  am- 
bition to  gain  the  approval  of  the  group  and  stand  well  with 
it.  Nature  urges  the  individual  in  such  a  case  to  put  forth 
every  effort  to  surpass  the  one  who  is  attracting  the  favor- 
able expressions  of  the  group  and  who  threatens  to  withdraw 
attention  wholly  from  himself.  The  individual  feels  this  urge 
as  envy  or  jealousy,  and  it  leads  him  to  practice  various  arts 
and  devices  either  to  subdue  those  who  excel  him  or  to  make  a 
supreme  attempt  to  outdo  them.  All  through  the  develop- 
mental period  the  individual  feels  and  responds  to  this  driving 
force  to  subjugate  rivals  or  to  outshine  them.  Mental  and 
physical  powers  alike  are  incessantly  stimulated  by  this  passion. 
A  child  from  whose  equipment  this  impulse  should  be  omitted 
would  be  inert  in  many  situations  in  which  individuals  are 
normally  most  active,  and  one  powerful  incentive  to  develop- 
ment would  be  lacking.  It  is  probable  that  this  driving  force 
continues  to  play  a  prominent  role  in  the  adult  period  in  stimulat- 
ing the  individual  to  retain  the  powers  which  have  been  acquired 
during  the  developmental  process. 


22  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

In  the  outworking  of  this  impulse  the  individual  exhibits  atti- 
tudes of  resentment  and  aggression.  He  becomes  angry  when 
anyone  stands  between  him  and  what  he  desires.  In 
ment  and  the  early  years  his  anger  may  even  be  vented  on  inani- 
aggression  j^.^|.g  objects,  if  they  appear  to  impede  his  progress  in 
attaining  his  desires.  But  as  he  develops  his  angry  attitudes 
become  limited  more  and  more  fully  to  living  things  and  espe- 
cially to  human  beings,  and  when  a  particular  person  threatens 
the  individual's  standing  with  his  group  for  a  considerable  period, 
his  anger  is  likely  to  become  permanent  and  settled  into  a  fixed 
attitude  of  hatred.  The  very  young  child's  resentful  and  aggres- 
sive attitudes  are  temporary ;  they  come  and  go  with  great 
rapidity,  but  when  he  enters  the  teens  they  begin  to  be  more 
enduring,  and  once  anger  is  aroused  it  is  not  readily  subdued. 
It  is  not  as  easily  aroused  as  in  the  earlier  years,  but  it  is  not  as 
easily  overcome  either. 

When  the  indi\'idual  meets  social  resistance,  nature  appears 
to  urge  liim  to  exert  himself  with  a  \icw  to  breaking  down  the 
barriers.  If  necessary,  he  must  employ  physical  force  to  subdue 
the  individual  who  stands  between  him  and  the  praise  of  the 
group  or  the  attentions  of  some  member  thereof.  Every  observer 
knows  how  quickly  a  boy  will  fight  and  a  girl  will  snub  a  rival. 
In  the  earlier  years  it  is  enough  that  one  should  have  the  appear- 
ance of  being  a  rival  in  order  to  arouse  the  individual's  pugnacious 
or  snubbish  attitude.  Again,  it  is  enough  that  a  boy  of  eight  or 
nine  should  have  a  reputation  in  a  school  for  being  a  good  fighter, 
in  order  that  he  should  arouse  the  ambitions  of  his  fellows  to 
contest  the  honor  with  him,  though  he  has  never  in  any  manner 
or  degree  stood  in  their  way  or  deprived  them  of  any  objects 
which  they  \vish  to  attain.  The  mere  fact  that  he  has  a  reputa- 
tion for  superiority  in  respect  to  this  activity  is  an  incitement  to 
other  boys  to  attempt  to  deprive  him  of  his  distinction.  They 
do  not  know  why  they  wish  to  fight ;    they  do  so  almost  if  not 


MOTIVE  FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT        23 

quite  reflexly  in  response  to  the  drive  that  comes  from  within. 
This  passion  to  reduce  a  rival  from  a  leading  to  a  subordinate 
position  compels  the  individual  to  try  to  attain  keenness  and 
strength  in  order  that  he  may  overcome  his  rival. 

The  individual  normally  feels  an  incessant  urge  to  become 
the  leader  of  his  group.  But  he  may  discover  that  a  rival  has 
superior  strength,  ingenuity  and  courage ;  and  when  submission 
this   fact    becomes    thoroughly    established    as  a  re-  *°  leader- 

.  ship  as  a 

suit  of  competition  and  various  encounters,  then  motive 
the  individual  responds  to  an  impulse  directly  con-  °^^^ 
trasted  with  the  impulse  to  lead  —  that  is,  he  is  impelled  to 
submit  to  the  leader,  to  see  how  he  can  gain  his  favor,  to  hold 
his  own  desires  in  check  instead  of  to  plan  how  he  can  outwit, 
outdo,  or  outfight  the  leader.  He  must  now  be  keen  to  discover 
what  the  leader  wishes  and  he  must  be  ready  and  enduring  in 
carrying  out  the  leader's  mandates.  In  other  words,  he  must 
submit  to  authority  and  he  must  conduct  himself  so  that  his 
chief  will  think  well  of  him.  When  an  individual  fully  realizes 
that  he  cannot  become  a  leader  of  a  group  himself  his  dominant 
aim  then  is  to  become  the  leader's  favorite.  The  leader  may  be 
his  parent,  his  teacher,  his  minister,  or  the  policeman  in  the 
district  in  which  he  hves ;  or  it  may  be  one  of  his  own  group. 
It  should  be  added  that  the  impulse  to  lead  arises  earlier  and  is 
much  more  powerful  than  the  impwlse  to  follow.  The  latter 
appears  only  when  the  former  is  effectively  blocked. 

The  driving  forces  in  bodily  and  mental  development  men- 
tioned thus  far  have  had  relation  to  the  protection  and  promotion 
of  physical  and  social  well-being ;   but  it  is  important  xhe  urge 
to  point  out  before  going  further  that  the  motives  *°  sain 

.        ,,  .    .  knowledge 

inciting    to    intellectual    activity    are    not    designed  for  its 
solely  to  advance  physical  and  social  welfare.     The  ^'^^^'^^^ 
individual  early  feels  an  urge  to  gain  knowledge  for  its  own 
sake.     As  the  body  has  its  characteristic  needs,  so  the  intellect 


24  MENTAL   DE\  ELOIWIENT   AND   EDUCATION 

has  its  special  needs.  It  may  be  true  that  intellectual  function 
originated  to  safeguard  the  body  and  to  secure  social  adaptation, 
but  in  the  process  of  development  it  has  acquired  a  measure  of 
independent  existence.  Lack  of  harmony  between  the  body  and 
the  physical  en\ironinent  is  felt  as  physical  pain,  while  lack  of 
harmony  between  the  intellect  and  its  environment  is  felt  as 
mental  and  nervous  strain  and  stress.  Intellectual  adaptation 
is  as  real,  if  not  as  extensive  or  as  imperative  in  the  life  of  the 
individual,  as  physical  or  social  adaptation. 

The  earliest  manifestation  of  intellectual  need  is  seen  in  the 
child's  tendency  to  pry  into  situations  which  are  not  understood. 
Every  parent  knows  that  this  tendency  is  at  the  bottom  of  much 
of  the  trouble  which  the  child  causes  in  the  home.  Always  he 
is  trying  to  have  informing  experience  with  objects  or  situations 
which  he  does  not  understand.  The  so-called  destructive  im- 
pulse as  it  is  manifested  in  the  early  years  is  mainly  but  one  form 
of  the  desire  to  have  experience  with  unknown  objects  which 
will  reveal  their  characteristics.  It  is  not  intended  to  imply 
that  the  child  is  aware  of  an  ulterior  end  in  his  destructive  activ- 
ities; he  is  no  more  reflective  regarding  the  adaptive  value  of 
these  activities  than  of  the  other  activities  which  have  been 
discussed  in  preceding  paragraphs.  He  pulls  a  clock  to  pieces, 
because  he  must  do  so  in  response  to  an  urge  from  within ;  but 
nature  apparently  anticipates  that  when  he  does  this  he  will  find 
out  something  about  the  construction  of  the  clock,  though  he  is 
not  eager  to  learn  nor  is  he  conscious  that  he  is  learning  anything. 

The  constructive  impulse  furnishes  another  illustration  of  the 
passion  to  gain  experience  with  objects  which  will  give  under- 
The  con-  Standing  of  their  traits  and  of  the  uses  to  which  they 
structive        may  be  put.     The  child  in  his  nursery  constructing 

impulse  as  i    i     .  i  •  i      i  •      i  i      i        •      i  •  i 

a  motive  houses  and  bridges  with  his  blocks  is  learmng  the 
force  characteristics  of  the  objects  which  he  constructs. 

He  is  not  aware  of  any  motive  except  the  gratification  of  his 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEXELOPMENT 


25 


passion  lo  construct,  but  there  is  a  deeper  nieaniiij^  in  this 
impulse.  A  child  normally  enters  the  constructive  and  also  the 
so-called  destructive  period  before  his  third  birthday,  and  once 
he  gets  started  in  these  activities  they  play  a  large  role  in  his 
career  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  or  at  least  until  he  attains 


Fig.  2.  —  Normal  children  up  to  and  often  through  the  teens  eagerly  seize  upon  every 
opportunity  to  construct  buildings  or  other  designs  with  blocks  or  any  material  suited  to  the 
purpose.     (See  exercise  6,  page  297  ) 

full  maturity.  In  these  activities  the  child's  intellectual  pro- 
cesses are  incessantly  stimulated.  Every  capability  of  mind  is 
urged  to  its  full  capacity  under  the  drive  to  find  out  how  things 
are  constituted,  what  can  be  done  with  them,  and  how  they  will 
respond  to  the  individual's  operations  upon  them. 

The  mastery  of  school  studies  depends  principally  upon  the 
driving  force  to  learn  for  the  pleasure  knowledge  itself  gives. 


26  MENTAL   Di:\  KLurMExXT   AND   EDUCATION 

Even  the  lirst  day  in  school  when  the  child  learns  words,  letters, 
or  figures,  which  might  not  appear  to  ha\e  any  attraction  for 
him,  he  is  nevertheless  urged  forward  ])artly,  though  not  wholly, 
by  the  pleasure  he  experiences  in  mastering  them.  When  he 
can  solve  a  problem  of  any  kind  he  may  be  as  pleased  as  when 
he  can  hit  a  mark  every  time  he  tries  with  a  stone  or  an  arrow,  or 
when  he  can  perform  any  muscular  task  confronting  him.  This 
eagerness  to  learn  the  technical  elements  of  school  studies  might 
not  constitute  a  sufficient  drive  to  hold  the  child  to  his  task, 
but  a  skillful  teacher  can  make  it  play  the  leading  j)art  by 
endowing  letters,  say,  with  individuality  and  perhaps  with 
personality,  and  so  coupling  them  with  objects  that  appear  to 
have  possibilities  of  good  or  ill  for  him.  Nature  evidently  has 
not  equipped  the  young  individual  so  that  he  will  be  greatly 
interested  in  objects  that  do  not  appear  to  have  any  char- 
acteristics which  would  make  them  of  consequence  to  him  in 
his  daily  life ;  but  in  time  he  may  come  to  see  that  all  things 
possess  traits  which  when  discovered  will  in  some  measure  gratify 
the  desire  to  learn  for  the  pleasure  of  knowing. 

It  should  be  noted  here  that  the  desire  to  master  intellectual 

problems  plays  a  role  in  the  individual's  activities  much  like 

the  desire  to  master  motor  or  social  problems.     Just 

The  impulse  ,      .  ,  ^  i        •      i  •    i         •  j. 

to  solve  as  he  IS  urged  to  overcome  physical  or  social  resistance, 
inteUectuai     ^q  ]^(.  iech  an  urge  to  overcome  intellectual  resistance ; 

problems  , 

that  is,  to  see  through  or  think  through  a  thing  which 
he  does  not  understand  even  if  the  thing  does  not  in  itself  appear 
to  be  of  importance  for  his  physical  or  social  adaptation.  One 
may  see  even  quite  young  pupils  applying  themselves  to  an 
arithmetic,  grammar,  geometry,  or  history  problem,  for  in- 
stance, merely  because  it  is  a  problem  which  has  not  been 
seen  or  thought  through.  So  long  as  it  remains  a  problem  the 
individual  feels  a  driving  force  to  continue  his  attack  upon  it, 
provided  there  is  a  chance  that  he  can  solve  it.     This  wish  to 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT  27 

interpret  what  is  unknown  in  terms  of  what  is  understood  is 
with  most  individuals  a  sufficient  stimulus  to  keep  them  in  an 
aggressive  attitude  toward  their  problems  until  they  have  been 
subjugated,  so  to  speak.  An  unsolved  intellectual  problem  is 
felt  in  the  individual's  consciousness  as  an  unconquercd  obstacle 
to  his  progress,  and  so  he  cannot  rest  until  he  has  mastered  it. 
This  drive  toward  intellectual  mastery  is  not  sufficiently  appre- 
ciated by  those  who  maintain  that  the  individual's  intellectual 
processes  are  incited  wholly  by  inherent  interest  in  the  objects 
or  situations  which  he  confronts. 

Too  great  importance  cannot  be  assigned  to  the  role  which  is 
played  at  practically  every  period  in  hfe  by  the  impulse  to  enlarge 
the  range  of  one's  understanding  in  order  to  relieve  doubt  and 
subdue  fear.  Many  writers  have  neglected  this  aspect  of  in- 
tellectual function.  They  have  minimized  the  distress  which 
arises  from  doubt  and  fear  of  the  unknown  and  the  confidence 
and  comfort  which  are  derived  from  understanding.  One  who 
will  without  prejudice  follow  the  development  of  a  child  can 
hardly  escape  forming  the  conviction  that  gaining  a  compre- 
hension of  objects  and  situations  which  have  not  been  under- 
stood affords  genuine  pleasure,  while  lack  of  understanding  is  a 
constant  source  of  strain  and  stress  and  discontent. 

Lastly,  attention  should  be  called  to  a  driving  force  which 
plays  a  role  in  every  normal  individual's  development  —  the 
wish  to  increase  the  objects  and  situations  in  one's 

....  Ill  T    1  ^^^  choice 

milieu  that  are  regarded  as  beautiful,  and  to  remove  or  of  the 
destroy  the  objects  and  situations  that  are  regarded  as  and"avoid 
ugly.     It  is  impossible  to  say  at  precisely  what  age  a  ance  of  the 
child  shows  appreciation  of  harmonious  colors  or  forms 
or  arrangement  of  objects   or  beautiful   melodies ;    but  most 
observers  have  noted   that  normally  before   the  individual  is 
"five  years  of  age  he  manifests  preferences  among  colors  and  forms 
and    arrangements    of    objects    and    combinations    of    musical 


28  MENTAl.    UKNELOIWIENT   AND   EDUCATION 

sounds.  By  the  age  of  fifteen  he  is  very  strongly  attracted  by 
some  colors,  forms,  arrangements  of  objects,  and  melodies,  while 
he  is  repelled  by  others.  Those  that  attract  him  he  calls  beautiful 
or  lovely  and  so  on,  while  those  that  repel  him  he  calls  disagree- 
able or  ugly,  and  he  responds  actively  to  the  impulse  to  augment 
the  former  and  reduce  the  latter.  A  considerable  portion  of  his 
intellectual  processes  have  relation  to  increasing  the  beauty 
around  him  and  reducing  the  ugliness.  Much  of  a  girl's  in- 
tellectual activity,  as  suggested  in  previous  paragraphs,  is  con- 
cerned with  securing  beautiful  adornment.  If  that  impulse  were 
left  entirely  out  of  her  life  and  nothing  of  a  similar  character 
were  put  in  its  place,  the  girl's  mental  development  would  suffer. 
The  man  does  not  feel  so  strong  an  urge  as  the  woman  to  differen- 
tiate between  beautiful  and  ugly  environments  and  to  increase 
the  one  and  diminish  the  other ;  but  even  he  is  not  neutral  in 
respect  to  these  values.  He  often  feels  an  impulse  to  differen- 
tiate between  the  beautiful  and  the  ugly  in  relation  to  his  own 
person  less  keenly  than  he  does  in  relation  to  his  possessions  — 
his  house,  his  barns,  his  lawns,  his  carriages  and  his  automobile, 
and  the  like  ;  but  the  woman  feels  it  in  relation  to  her  own  person 
as  well  as  her  possessions. 

We  may  now  ask  whether  we  have  noted  all  the  driving  forces 
which  impel  the  indi\'idual  to  act  and  which  determine  the  direc- 
tion of  the  mo\'ement  of  his  mind  and  the  develop- 
f^emSTcent    ment  of  his  body.     We  have  mentioned  all  the  forces 

of  ancestral  ^^.^^^  .^^j-^.  ^f  direct  service  in  the  individual's  physical, 
life 

social,   intellectual   and   aesthetic   adjustments;     but 

he  indulges  in  activities  which  are  not  of  service  in  any  of  the 

ways    mentioned.      For    instance,    we    observe    boys    playing 

baseball,  throwing  stones  at  windows,  fishing,  shooting  at  birds, 

climbing  trees,  taking  hikes  into  the  woods,  preying  upon  the 

property  of  farmers,  stealing  objects  from  the  carts  of  peddlers, 

playing  marbles,  hide  and  seek,  tag  and  similar  games.      These 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DE\^ELOPMENT 


29 


activities  have  no  direct  bearing  upon  adaptation  to  physical, 
social,  intellectual,  or  aesthetic  environments.  Undoubtedly  the 
individual  gains  in  physical  development  through  all  these 
activities,  though  no  one  of  them  is  precisely  adapted  to  any 
physical  act  which  he  will  have  to  perform  in  daily  life.  Again 
in  carrying  on  these  activities,  intellectual  processes  are  awakened 


Fig. 


Boys  in  the  teens,  and  sometimes  earlier  and  later,  are  easily  led  into  the  life 
of  a  tramp.     (See  exercise  4,  page  296.) 


and  sustained ;  but  it  is  improbable  that  the  individual  in  his 
actual  adjustments  will  use  the  intellectual  processes  in  the  way 
in  which  they  are  called  into  play  in  the  activities  mentioned. 
These  activities  cannot  bg  regarded  as  a  sort  of  preparation  for 
the  needs  of  later  life  as  some  writers  have  maintained,  nor  can 
they  be  accounted  for  on  the  supposition  that  the  individual 
possesses  a  surplus  of  energy  which  seeks  an  outlet  in  these 


30  MENIAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

directions,  for  the  reason  tlml  his  parents,  teachers  and  others 
are  constantly  stri\in<^  ti)  have  liim  use  his  energies  in  other 
ways  than  those  in  which  he  chooses  spontaneously  to  employ 
them.  And  further,  it  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  that 
a  boy  will  engage  in  such  activities  as  have  been  mentioned  when 
he  apparently  has  little  energy  left  for  the  work  which  he  has 
been  performing  in  school  or  on  the  farm  or  elsewhere. 

There  seems  to  be  no  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  activities 
mentioned  except  that  they  once  were  performed  in  a  serious 
way  by  the  individual's  remote  ancestors,  and  they  remain  to-day 
as  reminiscences,  so  to  speak,  of  the  earlier  life,  just  as  there  are 
rudimentary  structures  in  the  human  body  that  are  remains  of 
organs  which  once  played  a  role  in  the  adaptive  needs  of  our 
forebears.  In  the  words  of  President  Jordan  —  "In  the  bodies 
of  most  animals  there  are  certain  incomplete  or  rudimentary 
organs  or  structures  which  serve  no  distinct  useful  purpose. 
They  are  structures  which,  in  the  ancestors  of  the  animals  now 
possessing  them,  were  fully  developed  functional  organs,  but 
which,  because  of  a  change  in  habits  or  conditions  of  living,  are 
of  no  further  need,  and  are  gradually  dying  out.  Each  of  these 
vestigial  organs  tells  a  story  of  some  past  adaptation  to  conditions, 
one  that  is  no  longer  needed  in  the  life  of  the  species.  They 
have  the  same  place  in  the  study  of  animals  that  silent  letters 
have  in  the  study  of  words.  For  example,  in  our  word  Knight, 
the  A'  and  gh  are  no  longer  sounded  ;  but  our  ancestors  used  them 
both,  as  the  Germans  do  to-day  in  their  cognate  word  Knecht. 
So  with  the  French  word  temps,  which  means  time,  in  which 
both  p  and  5  are  silent.  The  Romans,  from  whom  the  French 
took  this  word,  needed  all  its  letters,  for  they  spelled  and  pro- 
nounced it  tempiis.  In  general,  ever^  silent  letter  in  every 
word  was  once  sounded.  In  like  manner,  every  vestigial  struc- 
ture was  once  in  use  and  helpful  or  necessary  to  the  life  of  the 
animal  which  possessed  it." 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT 


31 


In  the  same  way  we  may  suppose  that  the  throwing,  hunt- 
ing, fishing,  preying,  nomadic  and  hide-and-seek  activities 
indulged  in  by  the  young  remain  as  vestiges  of  activities 
once  performed  as  a  matter  of  necessity.  Nature  seemingly 
conserves  activities  as  she  conserves  organs  that  have  played  a 
useful  role  ^  only  slowly  do  they  disappear.  She  does  not 
eliminate  structures  or  actions  as  rapidly  as  she  changes  the 


i 

fi 

■^W-'-^>'-     ^  If  Aft  In* 

Fig.  4.  —  Children  of  all  ages  love  to  dramatize  Indian  life.     (See  exercise  5,  page  296.) 

environments  to  which  the  structures  and  habits  have  ceased 
to  adapt  the  individual,  so  that  he  finds  himself  provided  with 
physical  and  mental  organs  and  traits  which  are  not  now  of 
service,  though  they  tend  to  become  functional.  If  there  had 
been  no  change  in  environments  since  the  activities  referred  to 
had  been  elaborated  originally,  they  would  be'  directly  serviceable 
now.  Nature  evidently  is  not  willing  to  take  a  chance ;  she 
will  have  them  performed  anyway  against  a  possible  time  of 
need. 


32  MEMAl.    DKVKLOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

It  should  be  specially  noted  In  this  coiinect-ioii  that  there  arc 
forces  operating  on  the  individual  which  tend  to  restrain  rudi- 
^    .  mcntarv  mental  traits.     From  the  moment  of  birth 

Environ- 
ment vying     the  environment  exerts  an  influence  upon  inherited 

hereditary  tendencies,  conserving  those  of  special  service  by 
forces  causing  them  to  be  repeated  constantly,  and  eliminat- 

ing those  that  are  useless  or  harmful  by  attaching  a  penalty, 
natural  or  otherwise,  to  their  performance.  The  play  of  the 
young  cub,  tiger,  or  wildcat  grows  ever  more  strenuous  as 
development  proceeds,  until  it  passes  by  regular  stages  into  the 
stern  and  momentous  activities  of  maturity.  But  the  kitten  of 
our  firesides  rarely  takes  life  very  seriously.  Its  preying  and 
combative  instincts  are  usually  kept  in  leash ;  and  if  they 
should  break  through  the  inhibitions  which  the  environment 
tends  to  establish,  the  creature  would  be  made  to  realize  that 
such  a  thing  must  not  occur  again.  So  the  forces  operating  on 
the  cat  in  domestication  tend  always  to  foster  a  peaceful,  non- 
combative  existence,  while  the  forces  in  feral  life  tend  always 
to  develop  ferocity  as  the  essential  requisite  for  survival  in  such 
an  environment.  The  principle  applies  more  profoundly  in  the 
development  of  the  human  child  than  of  the  kitten,  puppy,  or 
any  animal.  The  social  environment  will  not  permit  nature  to 
pursue  her  course  unobstructed  in  the  individual's  development. 
It  is  of  little  consequence  to  the  child's  associates  what  methods 
nature  pursues  in  building  his  body,  but  the  moment  he  begins 
to  use  his  body,  to  become  active,  then  the  social  environment 
manifests  an  interest,  for  every  act  of  the  individual  has  a  social 
bearing.  The  child  liveth  not  to  himself  alone,  so  that  he  cannot 
conduct  himself  as  he  chooses,  irrespective  of  the  way  his  action 
affects  others. 

Suppose  a  child  impulsively  appropriates  the  property  of 
his  fellows,  or  tells  falsehoods  to  shield  himself,  or  flies  into  an 
angry  passion  whenever  he  is  crossed.     Note  how  the  environ- 


MOTIVE    FORCES   IN  DEVELOPMENT  33 

ment,  expressing  itself  through  the  parent,  the  teacher  and  the 
minister,  swoops  down  upon  the  offender,  and  impresses  upon 
him  the  necessity  of  refraining  from  such  conduct.  He  cannot 
pursue  his  native  course,  outlined  for  him  by  heredity,  unless 
it  should  happen,  which  is  quite  improbable,  that  this  course 
lay  parallel  in  every  part  with  the  course  insisted  upon  by  the 
social  environment.  Most  of  the  punishment  and  correction  of 
childhood  and  youth  is  necessitated  because  the  social  environ- 
ment will  not  tolerate  action  which  is  hostile  to  the  rights  and 
welfare  of  the  group. 

Then  there  is  another  factor  which  prevents  heredity  from 
playing  so  prominent  a  part  in  mental  as  in  embryological 
development.  The  child  is  born  into  an  advanced  xhg  rgje  of 
social  order,  and  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  differentiate  'Citation 
people  from  things,  he  commences  to  imitate  the  former.  He 
aims,  though  not  consciously,  to  become  like  the  persons  around 
him,  and  this  leads  him  to  adopt  modes  of  conduct  quite  at 
variance  with  what  he  would  choose  if  he  followed  the  promptings 
of  heredity  alone.  No  one  can  think  of  the  body  as  it  is  being 
built  imitating  some  mature  body  ;  but  this  is  the  chief  character- 
istic in  mental  development.  One  who  has  even  a  slight  under- 
standing of  children  must  know  that  their  activities  are  deter- 
mined very  largely  by  what  they  see  and  hear  going  on  around 
them.  A  child  or  a  youth  will  imitate  his  elders  in  their  manners 
and  general  ethical  and  social  conduct  when  he  would  not  sponta- 
neously and  natively  do  as  they  do  at  all.  And  in  copying  them 
he  becomes  like  them,  adopts  their  modes  of  behavior,  which 
greatly  shortens  his  task  of  becoming  a  genuine  social  being. 
If  he  were  compelled  to  wait  upon  heredity  alone  for  the 
development  of  the  highest  ethical  and  social  action,  he  would 
move  forward  very  much  more  slowly,  and  reach  his  goal 
very  much  later  than  he  does  now,  if  indeed  he  would  reach 
it  at  all. 


34  MENTAL    DFAELOl'MKXT   AND    KOrCATION 

It  may  be  said  in  summary  that  mental  development  is  the 

resultant  of  two  sorts  of  forces  acting  upon  the  individual     - 

physical  heredity,  that  which  is  fixed  in  the  organism 

Two  forces     before  birth  ;  and  social  hereditv,  that  which  he  must 

acting  on  .  ..,,.'..  i    i  • 

the  child  HI  somc  part  assimilate  by  imitation  and  learning, 
veiopmem  '^^^  ^^^^  valuable  discoveries  of  the  race  —  material, 
social,  ethical,  aesthetic  —  in  its  well-nigh  infinitely 
long  struggle  to  reach  civilization  are  preserved  in  its  literature, 
its  educational  and  other  institutions,  its  government,  its 
traditions,  its  customs.  These  constitute  the  social  heredity  of 
the  child ;  and  while  they  may  to  some  extent  run  parallel  with 
his  physical  heredity  and  reenforce  it,  nevertheless  as  the  race 
advances  it  is  constantly  abandoning  modes  of  conduct  of  a 
narrowly  egoistic  character,  and  putting  emphasis  upon  broader 
altruistic  action.  But  physical  heredity  tends  to  preserve  the 
ancient  regime,  and  make  it  the  most  important  in  the  in- 
dividual's life.  That  which  comes  late  in  racial  evolution  is  very 
unstable  in  physical  heredity.  But  in  social  heredity  that  which 
is  late  in  racial  achievement  is  chiefly  preserved,  and  this  is  in 
many  vital  respects  hostile  to  the  profoundest  impulses  of 
physical  heredity. 


CHAPTER   III 

PRIMITIVE   FORIMS   OF   ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITIES;    TRIAL- 
AND-SUCCESS ;    IMITATION 

The  world  which  the  infant  enters  at  birth  impinges  upon 
him  in  many  ways,  physical,  social,  aesthetic,  but  he  does  not 
react  upon  it  except  to  express  his  satisfaction  in  a-  ^.  ,  , 
general  way,  and  to  swallow  his  food  which  he  finds  lessness  of 
ready  at  hand.  He  is  dependent  entirely  for  his  ex- 
istence upon  the  ser\dces  of  his  elders,  who  have  learned  how 
to  adapt  themselves  to  the  forces  acting  upon  them.  He  is 
more  helpless  during  the  first  few  months  of  life  than  the  chick, 
the  calf,  the  colt,  the  kitten,  or  the  puppy.  Yet  he  is  not  in- 
active ;  on  the  contrary,  he  is  in  action  most  of  the  time  dur- 
ing waking  moments.  But  his  activities,  except  in  a  few  in- 
stances, such  as  grasping  a  pencil  placed  in  the  palm  of  his 
hand  and  sucking  any  object  put  in  his  mouth,  have  no  pur- 
poseful relation  to  the  world  about  him.  They  are  impulsive, 
using  Preyer's  term,  or  spontaneous,  the  term  employed  by 
Bain,  Miss  Shinn,  and  others.  Even  before  birth  there  are 
activities  of  an  internally  aroused  character ;  they  occur  in  the 
embryo  before  the  reflex  mechanism  is  capable  of  functioning, 
so  they  cannot  be  of  the  nature  of  responses  to  the  environ- 
ment. In  his  observations  on  the  development  of  the  chick, 
Preyer  found  that  movements  occurred  which  must  have  been 
incited  from  within ;  there  was  no  external  stimulus  to  arouse 
them,  for  they  appeared  without  any  alteration  in  the  sur- 
roundings, so  far  as  he  could  tell.  These  primitive  move- 
ments are  probably  due  to  the  more  or  less  spontaneous  release 

35 


36  MKXTAr.  1)l:\i:lopmi:\t  and  kdi'cwtiox 

uf  energy  generated  during  llie  process  of  metabolism  in  de- 
veloping nerve  centers.  Hoffding  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  simplest  organisms  have  the  power  of  moving  with- 
out being  stimulated  from  without.  Internal  changes  liberate 
energy,  as  in  the  case  of  the  amoeba.  This  power  is  possessed 
by  all  organic  cells.  The  reason  for  speaking  of  this  type  of 
activity  must  not  be  lost  sight  of;  it  has  no  direct  connec- 
tion with  adaptation  to  the  environing  world,  although,  as  we 
shall  see,  it  furnishes  the  data  out  of  which  adaptive  activities 
may  be  developed. 

During  the  first  twelve  or  fifteen  weeks  of  the  child's  life,  and 
for  a  longer  period  probably  in  many  cases,  a  variety  of  stimu- 
lations produces  lively  acti\ities  in  him,  but  yet  one  could  hardly 
say  that  he  was  responding  to  his  environments  in  an  adaptive 
manner.  Rough  clothing,  for  instance,  will  incite  activity  in 
the  child's  legs  and  arms  and  vocal  organs,  but  these  are  not 
specifically  related  to  the  source  of  his  troubles  or  the  way  to 
remedy  them,  though  some  persons  would  say  that  the  child 
feels  a  sort  of  instinctive  confidence  that  by  kicking  and  crying 
relief  will  be  obtained.  Looking  at  the  matter  neurologically, 
we  may  say  that  dermal  irritation  arouses  impulses  in  the  cen- 
tral nervous  system,  and  these  follow  nerve  routes  which  have 
been  employed  by  the  child's  ancestors  in  the  production  of 
these  simple  and  very  general  protective  actions.  The  in- 
fant's responses  are  practically  all  characterized  by  lack  of  def- 
initeness  and  of  specific  appropriateness  which  would  make 
them  effective  so  far  as  his  initiative  is  concerned,  though  some 
of  his  actions  are  suited  to  arouse  his  caretakers  to  serve  him. 
Observe  a  four-months-old  child  when  he  sees  his  mother  after  a 
period  of  separation.  He  is  evidently  eager  for  her  to  take  him 
in  her  arms,  but  he  cannot  do  much  on  his  own  part  toward 
bringing  about  the  desired  end.  He  is  active  enough,  but  his 
actions  are  not  properly  correlated  with  the  object  arousing 


PRIMITIVE   FORxMS  OF   ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITIES  37 

them,  and  with  regard  to  which  he  wishes  to  establish  intimate 
connections.  From  one  point  of  view  there  is  method  in  his 
riotous  activities ;  but  if  he  had  not  been  cast  amid  friends 
who  are  alert  to  catch  every  expression  so  as  to  serve  him,  he 
would  fare  badly  indeed.  The  infant  can  only  express  pleasure 
and  displeasure  in  a  general  way,  and  he  must  wait  upon  others 
to  decipher  just  what  his  condition  is  and  to  minister  to  his 
needs. 

All  students  of  mental  development  have  noted  this  first 
epoch  in  the  child's  career.  Whatever  actions  he  performs 
that  appear  to  have  rudimentary  intelligence  in  them  are,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  of  a  spontaneous  or  reflex  character.  His  hands 
roam  about  aimlessly,  or  with  only  the  most  general  aim  of  en- 
countering some  object  accidentally,  and  when  they  come  in 
contact  with  an  object,  they  set  out  with  it  on  the  journey  to  the 
mouth.  But  he  is  probably  quite  unaware  of  precisely  what 
occurs,  and  not  at  all  responsible  for  it  in  any  conscious  or  vo- 
litional way.  It  just  happens ;  and  he  is  in  all  likelihood  not 
even  an  appreciative  onlooker  at  the  outset. 

Morgan  can  hardly  have  an  infant  in  mind  when  he  says  that 
as  he  is  "gazing  about  here  and  there,  a  sweet  is  brought  within 
his  range  of  vision.  So  soon  as  it  falls  within  the  margin  of 
the  visual  field,  the  eyes  are  so  moved  as  to  bring  it  to  the  focus 
of  vision ;  the  hand  is  even  stretched  out  to  touch  and  seize  it, 
and  it  is  conveyed  to  the  mouth."  Such  an  act  would  be  im- 
possible without  a  great  amount  of  preliminary  experience 
of  a  kind  to  be  described  presently.  The  earliest  I  have  seen 
an  infant  perform  a  purposeful  act  was  in  the  fourteenth  week. 
Then  she  placed  (in  a  faltering  and  uncertain  way,  it  should 
be  added)  both  hands  upon  her  mother's  face  while  she  was  look- 
ing at  her.  This  was  probably  not  a  mere  accident,  for  the  act 
was  repeated  within  the  space  of  a  few  minutes,  and  there  was 
not  much  random  movement  accompanying  it.     It  is,  of  course, 


38  MENTAL   UE\EU)PMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

extremely  difficult  to  tell  just  when  such  a  deliberate  act  occurs 
for  the  first  time,  since  the  child  may  accidentally  hit  the  mark, 
and  the  observer  is  likely  in  such  a  case  to  be  deceived. 

For  a  number  of  weeks,  the  child's  activities  are  wholly  spon- 
taneous or  reflex,  all  running  in  a  few  ready-made  routes.  But 
The  first  by  the  fourth  month  there  are  evidences  that  some 
step  in  correlation  between  particular  situations  and  adap- 

acquiring  _  ... 

adaptive  tivc  responses  thereto  is  beginning  to  take  place. 
At  the  outset  this  comes  about  accidentally  while 
the  child  is  indulging  in  spontaneous  movements  in  the  manner 
indicated  above.  Complex  series  of  data  chance  to  come  into 
consciousness  at  the  same  instant,  or  in  immediate  succession, 
and  they  tend  to  adhere  together  in  the  way  they  were  experienced, 
thus  making  a  sort  of  pattern  of  a  special  experience.  There 
mil  be  data  gained  from  Adsion  (a),  as  a  bottle  of  milk  and  the 
appearance  of  the  hand  in  reaching  it ;  data  gained  from  exten- 
sion of  the  arm  (b) ;  from  touching  the  object  (c) ;  and  grasp- 
ing it  (d) ;  from  conveying  the  hand  to  the  mouth  (c) ;  and 
gustatory  data  (/).  Now  these  several  partial  processes  tend 
to  hold  together  in  this  particular  pattern  (a-b-c-d-e-f) ,  which 
has  yielded  agreeable  sensations  and  has  proved  serviceable 
in  adaptation,  and  the  tendency  will  be  for  the  pattern  to  be- 
come completed  whenever  the  first  factor  thereof  (a)  comes  into 
consciousness.  Of  course,  it  is  a  long  struggle  with  alternating 
success  and  failure  before  this  complex  act  will  become  so  def- 
initely established  that  it  may  be  performed  readily  and  with 
certainty. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  child's  earliest  response  to 
his  bottle  involved  general  activity  of  his  body,  arms,  features, 
vocal  apparatus,  trunk  and  legs.  The  visual  stimulation  ap- 
parently energized  the  entire  motor  system,  and  as  a  result  the 
child's  hand  accidentally  came  in  contact  with  the  bottle,  and 
reflexly  it  closed  upon  it  and  conveyed  it  to  the  mouth.     Now, 


PRIMITIVE   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITIES  39 

in  making  this  adaptive  act  the  energy  set  free  by  the  sight  of 
the  bottle  must  be  directed  into  the  particular  motor  channel 
necessary  for  the  execution  of  the  act,  with  the  suppression  of 
random  non-adaptive  actions.  It  is  essentially  a  process  of 
specialization  wherein  a  particular  motor  response  becomes 
connected  with  a  particular  visual  situation.  We  must  sup- 
pose that  tliis  connection  is  made  in  the  central  nervous  sys- 
tem upon  repeated  experience  because  the  adaptive  act  is  pleas- 
urable and  tends  to  persist  over  random  non-pleasurable  or 
neutral  actions.  The  same  effect  would  be  produced  if  the  adap- 
tive act  were  painful ;  either  pleasurable  or  painful  acts  become 
estabhshed  more  readily  than  neutral  ones. 

The  chief  requisite  in  the  development  of  dehberate  out  of 
random  movements  is  that  the  attention  should  first  be  directed 
upon  the  method  of  performing  the  movement  (which  occurs 
in  the  first  instance  spontaneously)  and  its  outcome.  Of  course, 
the  learner's  abihty  to  attend  to  the  details  of  an  act  he  is  learn- 
ing must  at  the  outset  be  very  general  and  non-specialized.  He 
probably  cannot  "see"  in  a  much  more  particularized  way 
than  he  can  execute,  though  the  modus  operandi  of  accompHsh- 
ing  an  accidental  act  may  to  some  extent  doubtless  become 
consciously  apprehended.  This  results  in  fusing  into  a  system 
or  series  a  number  of  inherently  unrelated  events.  Then  later 
when  attention  is  directed  upon  what  was  originally  a  separate 
term  of  the  series  the  whole  will  tend  to  become  reestablished. 
But  the  learner  must  attend  finally  to  the  object  to  be  dealt 
with,  which  includes  the  object  as  a  thing  of  perception  and  its 
value  for  the  individual.  The  motor  elements  in  an  act  speedily 
become  marginal. 

The  principle  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  an  adult  learning 
golf  or  tennis.  At  the  outset  he  gives  focal  attention  to  his 
stance,  the  manner  of  grasping  the  club  or  racket,  the  swing, 
and  so  on ;   but  very  soon  these  elements  are  lost  sight  of,  and 


40  MENTAL   DEXELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

the  player  simply  keeps  his  eye  on  the  ball.  As  one  observes 
children  learning  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  world,  every  sign 
indicates  that  they  are  conscious  finally  of  objects  to  be 
dealt  with  and  their  values;  and  the  muscular  processes  re- 
quired for  adaptation  occupy  a  marginal  position  in  atten- 
tion. Bain  cites  an  instance  of  a  type  of  movement  claiming 
expUcit  attention  —  the  moving  of  the  ear  —  which,  it  is  easy 
to  see,  might,  if  it  should  occur  spontaneously,  be  sufficiently 
novel  to  attract  attention.  There  would  be  no  objective  end 
toward  which  the  movement  would  be  directed,  and  so  atten- 
tion could  occupy  itself  wholly  with  the  sensations  arising  from 
the  movement  itself.  But  actions  like  this  are  of  such  shght 
importance  that  they  may  be  left  out  of  account,  and  the 
principle  may  stand,  —  that  in  deliberate  action  the  attention 
of  the  learner  becomes  centered  on  the  ends  to  be  attained, 
and  not  on  the  means  of  attaining  them.  Of  course,  viewing 
the  matter  logically,  the  learner  must  take  account  of  all  his 
movements,  and  note  which  succeed  and  which  fail,  and  choose 
the  former  and  reject  the  latter ;  and  while  this  may  be  true 
when  the  ends  he  wishes  to  attain  require  very  complex  adap- 
tive processes,  still  it  does  not  appear  to  be  so  true  of  most  of  his 
actions. 

In  V.'s  twentieth  month  an  experiment  was  made  in  teach- 
ing him  to  throw  a  ball  toward  the  ceiUng.  He  had  had  ex- 
A  concrete  pcricnce  in  tossing  a  ball,  and  it  had  often  gone  in 
example  the  direction  of  the  ceiling,  but  probably  always  with- 
a  voluntary  out  deliberate  attempt  to  send  it  there.  Now  when  he 
**^*  tried  to  perform  this  particular  act  his  arm  and  in- 

deed his  entire  body  became  rigid,  he  could  not  let  go  of  the 
ball  at  the  proper  moment,  and  when  it  finally  was  released  it 
went  toward  the  floor.  He  made  a  great  effort  to  do  it,  as  was 
apparent  from  the  tension  of  the  muscles  in  his  face  and  body 
and  in  the  hand  not  used  as  well  as  the  one  employed.     He  kept 


rRLMITIXE   FORMS  OF   ADAP'IIXE  ACT1\  ITIES  41 

at  the  task  lor  several  minutes,  and  ;is  the  muscles  became 
less  tense  and  the  ball  was  released  jnore  readily,  he  succeeded 
in  giving  it  an  upward  direction  a  few  times,  though  it  did  not 
reach  the  ceiling  in  any  case.  Nevertheless,  he  was  greatly 
pleased  at  his  partial  successes,  and  he  wanted  to  keep  trying 
it.  The  experiment  was  repeated  every  day  for  some  time,  with 
the  result  that  at  the  end  of  four  weeks  there  was  no  longer  any 
doubt  that  he  had  acquired  the  ability  to  throw  the  ball  up 
when  he  wished  to  do  so.  Most  of  the  original  strain  and  ten- 
sion and  random  movement  had  disappeared  and  a  voluntary, 
adaptive  movement  had  been  established  by  the  method  of 
selecting  the  successful  processes  out  of  the  mass  of  actions, 
most  of  which  were  not  essential  to  the  performance  of  the 
task. 

V.  was  tested  at  about  this  time  in  executing  other  simple 
acts  which  he  had  never  performed  deliberately ;  for  instance, 
in  turning  a  key  in  a  door  lock.  He  apparently  regarded  me  care- 
fully while  I  turned  it,  and  then  he  took  hold  of  it  and  pushed 
it  backward  and  forward.  He  was  unable  to  reproduce  just 
the  thing  he  observed.  He  probably  saw  only  what  was  nearest 
to  what  he  had  previously  done.  When  he  took  hold  of  the  key 
he  pulled  it  in  and  out,  because  this  was  the  sort  of  reaction  that 
had  occurred  in  similar  situations  in  the  past.  After  he  made 
a  number  of  unsuccessful  trials,  I  took  his  hand  and  turned  the 
key  for  him  and  repeated  it  a  few  times.  Then  he  caught  the 
idea  and  worked  away  by  himself,  pulling  in  and  out  more  than 
turning  at  first ;  but  he  had  the  notion  of  how  the  thing  was  to 
be  done,  and  it  was  not  long  before  he  was  master  of  the  art. 
These  examples  are  typical  of  innumerable  instances  that  one 
who  observes  young  children  may  note,  all  of  which  will  con- 
form to  this  general  principle  of  learning  —  selecting  special, 
successful,  adaptive  acts  out  of  a  mass  of  general,  random, 
non-adaptive  acts. 


42  MENTAL   DEXELOPMICNT   AND    EDUCATION 

To  sum  up  the  })rincipk's  thus  far  tlcvelopcd  :    In  the  acquisi- 
tion of  any  new  act  there  is  normally  an  excess  of  action  in- 
volving muscles  which  should  remain  quiescent,  or 
UiToives^        practically    so.     The    novice    is    unable    to    energize 
excessive       just  the  musclcs  in  just  the  coordinations  he  wishes ; 

activity  .  .         ..  ^  .         .  ^ 

new  actions  must  always  Ije  (Uherentiated  out  of  a 
mass  of  more  general  activities.  When  V.  was  learning  to 
throw  the  ball  toward  the  ceiling,  much  of  his  fundamental 
muscular  system  appeared  to  be  in  action,  and  the  same  thing 
could  be  seen  when  he  was  working  at  the  key,  when  he  began 
to  write,  and  so  on  ad  libitum. 

Every  adult  should  know  that  whenever  he  is  called  on  to 
perform  some  entirely  new  act  of  skill,  he  usually  energizes 
practically  the  whole  of  his  body  on  the  first  few  attempts,  and 
that  it  is  only  after  many  trials  that  he  is  able  to  perform  the 
act  directly  and  simply  without  going  through  irrelevant 
actions.  The  raison  d'etre  of  these  unnecessary  actions  appears 
to  be  as  follows :  a  novice  attempting  a  new  act  does  not  know 
what  movements  or  combinations  of  movements  will  produce 
the  desired  results,  and  he  therefore  runs  the  whole  gamut  of 
the  movements  which  he  has  previously  performed.  He  tries 
them  in  different  combinations  and  finally,  sooner  or  later, 
strikes  the  right  one,  the  one  that  brings  with  it  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  desired  end. 

Bail  illustrates  the  principle  by  citing  experiments  upon 
adults  in  energizing  the  muscle  which  moves  the  ear.  He  first 
moves  it  mechanically  by  electrical  stimulation,  which  gives  the 
subject  some  data  of  how  it  feels.  Then  the  subject,  endeavor- 
ing to  enervate  the  special  muscle,  enervates  a  number  of  other 
muscles  about  it ;  but  through  direction  of  attention  upon 
the  peculiar  sensations  of  the  movement,  the  latter  gradually 
gains  an  independent  value  in  consciousness,  and  the  attention 
acquires  the  power  of  isolating  it  until  finally  it  can  be  executed 


PRIMITIVE   FORMS   OF  ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITIES  43 

by  itself  alone.  This  is  exactly  such  a  process  in  its  character- 
istic features  as  can  be  observed  in  all  the  child's  learning  of 
new  activities. 

The  reason  the  child  cannot  voluntarily  wink  one  eye  when 
he  first  makes  the  attempt,  though  he  can  readily  wink  both 
eyes,  is  because  the  wink-one-eye  reaction  has  no  distinct  mean- 
ing or  cue  in  consciousness.  He  has  a  wink-both-eyes  cue,  but 
he  has  no  wink-the-left-eye  cue.  So  he  has  a  general  purse- 
the-lips  cue,  but  no  suck-in-with-the-lips  cue.  The  principle 
has  universal  application  at  every  stage  of  mental  development. 
The  adult  learning  to  pitch  a  curved  ball  has  a  project-straight- 
ahead  cue  which  will  enable  him  to  send  it  forward,  but  he  lacks 
the  simple-twist-of-the-wrist  cue  which  will  give  his  ball  a 
rotary  motion.  This  he  must  gain  as  a  process  partly  of  spe- 
cialization of  the  general  projecting  movement  and  partly  of 
adding  a  factor  to  the  original  movement.  The  same  is  true, 
of  course,  of  his  learning  tennis,  billiards,  golf,  or  any  manual 
art.  Take  again  a  man  learning  to  pronounce  German,  say 
Ich.  He  has  the  fundamental  combination,  that  denoted  by 
Ik  perhaps,  because  this  is  nearest  his  experience,  but  he  lacks 
the  pecuhar  factor  which  differentiates  Ich  from  Ik,  and  this 
special  factor  he  acquires  by  differentiating  it  out  of  the  general 
combination.  So  look  where  one  may  he  will  always  see  an 
individual,  be  he  young  or  old,  who  is  learning  an  act  of  any 
kind,  trying  to  differentiate  the  special  movements  which  make 
it  new  from  the  general  and  familiar  complex  in  which  they 
are  incorporated,  so  that  the  new  act  may  be  executed  without 
unnecessary  accompaniments.  To  facilitate  the  process  of 
discovering  the  special  movements,  it  seems  that  nature  has 
taken  pains  to  provide  all  young  things  that  have  to  learn  ac- 
tivities —  that  do  not  live  out  their  lives  largely  on  the  plane 
of  originally  set-up  activities  as  the  chick  does  —  with  the 
impulse  to  be  incessantly  in  action.     Out  of   this   exuberance 


44     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

will  develop  in  time  the  new  activities  which  the  individual 
wishes  to  acquire.  There  appears  to  be  no  way  to  secure  ad- 
vance except  through  this  excess  action  or  experimentation. 

It  should  be  noted   further  that  as  the  individual  discovers 

more  and  more  complex  activities,  the  simpler  ones  decline  to  a 

certain   extent,   or   become   subordinate.     S.   greatly 

tegration  of    enjoyed  reaching  for  his  mother's  face  from  the  be- 

sirapie  acts     prjnning  of  the  fourth  month  on,  but  after  the  seventh 

into  more         o  o 

complex  month  he  seemed  to  be  less  interested  in  this  activity, 
but  spent  most  of  his  minutes  at  mealtime  engaging 
in  little  games.  The  original  action  occurred  thereafter  only  as 
it  was  one  of  the  elements  in  a  more  complex  series  constituting 
some  game.  The  example  is  typical  of  most  of  the  activities 
performed  throughout  the  whole  of  the  developmental  period. 
It  seems  that  when  one  is  mastering  an  activity  he  repeats  it 
in  practice  only  until  it  can  be  performed  with  surety.  When 
the  child  begins  to  walk,  he  soon  abandons  the  original  creep- 
ing movements  which  he  once  practiced  so  enthusiastically. 
'At  eighteen  months  the  child  is  practicing  running,  climbing 
stairs,  tearing  paper,  and  so  on ;  but  at  five  years  he  does  not 
engage  in  these  activities  except  as  they  are  essential  elements 
in  more  complex  ones.  The  child  of  five  runs  to  catch  people 
or  to  run  away  from  them,  or  to  roll  a  hoop,  and  so  on,  whereas 
in  the  beginning  he  practiced  running  with  no  such  ulterior  end 
in  view. 

At  eight  H.  is  busy  a  good  deal  of  the  time  in  reading,  playing 
at  society  with  her  companions,  caring  for  her  doll,  cutting 
patterns  out  of  paper,  producing  designs  with  her  paints,  using 
her  pencil  in  drawing,  and  so  on.  At  three  years  there  was  little 
interest  in  activities  of  this  sort  ;  instead  she  was  climbing, 
running,  pounding,  and,  in  short,  using  her  muscles  in  all 
manner  of  ways  for  the  pleasure  of  exercising  them  in  the  ac- 
complishment of  very  simple  feats.     But  now  she  has  reached 


PRIMITR'E   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITIES  45 

the  point  where  she  can  perform  these  siihple  tasks  easily,  and 
she  seems  to  have  forsaken  tliem.  The  principle  is  illustrated 
again  in  the  use  of  language.  By  the  twelfth  month  or  there- 
abouts the  child's  vocalizations  occasionally  correspond  to  some 
of  the  words  spoken  in  his  environment,  and  with  the  aid  of 
his  elders  he  often  detects  the  resemblance.  Then  he  repeats 
the  combinations  continuously  until  they  are  mastered,  when  he 
ceases  to  practice  them.  But  whenever  he  makes  a  new  ac- 
quisition of  any  of  the  words  he  hears  about  him,  he  keeps 
going  over  them  until  they  are  fixed  in  habit.  This  tendency  is 
seen  even  in  maturity.  An  adult  is  inclined  to  repeat  to  him- 
self a  strange  word  until  the  vocal  mechanism  becomes  adapted 
to  express  it  readily. 

It  should  perhaps  be  said  in  qualification  of  what  has  gone 
before,  that  it  is  impossible  to  believe  that  the  child  could  learn 
absolutely  de  novo   such   adaptive   actions   as   have 

1  r  1  rr.!  .  r         ,  •         Little  iS 

been  referred  to.  The  experiences  of  the  race  in  learned 
correlating  movements  appropriately  with  the  envi-  '^^"°'^'* 
ronment  must  prove  of  marked  advantage  to  the  individual 
in  his  own  learning.  W^e  have  seen  that  the  child  possesses 
a  few  original  adaptive  movements ;  and  why  should  not  the 
basis  for  others  be  laid  in  physical  heredity,  so  that  with  a  rela- 
tively small  amount  of  experience  they  may  be  made  definite? 
One  can  hardly  conceive  how  the  child  could  so  rapidly  be- 
come possessed  of  such  a  vast  number  of  adaptive  movements 
as  he  acquires  if  there  had  not  been  some  preparation  made  for 
them  by  his  ancestors.  It  seems  probable  that  many,  perhaps 
most,  of  the  child's  serviceable  actions  which  he  appears  to 
acquire  ab  inito  are  really  partly  original.  A  certain  amount  of 
experiment  is  essential  in  order  to  make  these  half-instinctive 
actions  effective,  but  something  has  been  accomplished  in  this 
direction  before  the  child  comes  among  us ;  the  routes  have 
been  opened  up  and  have  been  traveled  over  a  certain  amount, 


46 


MENTAL  DEXELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


and  they  need  only  a  little  smoothing  out  to  make  them  pass- 
able —  some  much  less  than  others,  of  course.  If  one  will  follow 
a  cliild  day  by  day  from  birth  onward,  he  will  see  adjustments 
being  learned  so  speedily  and  with  the  detailed  steps  so  ob- 
scured that  he*  is  forced  to  the  beUef  that  there  must  have  been 
considerable  original  preparation  for  these  adaptations.  It  is 
suggestive  to  compare  the  si)eed  with  which  the  child  makes 
some  of  his  very  complex  adjustments  with  the  laborious  way 


Fig.  5.  —  Children  love  to  impersonate  the  characters  they  see,  or  read  about.     (See 
exercise  39,  page  309.) 


in  which  the  schoolboy  masters  the  relatively  simple  act  of 
writing,  for  which  no  specific  preparation  has  been  made  ap- 
parently. 

In  the  preceding  paragraphs  we  glanced  at  the  development 

of  that  variety  of  adaptive  actions  that  enables  the  individual 

to  deal  with   the  objects  in  his  environment.     For 

Imitation  as  1  •  1        1       •    • 

a  form  of       the  most  part  these  have  to  do  with  obtammg  or 

^'^tivitv^        avoiding  or  manipulating  things  or  seeking  places  of 

refuge,  though  some  of  them,  as  jumping,  for  example, 

do  not  appear  to  have  such  an  end  in  view  directly.     Still  even 


PRIMITIVE   FORMS   01'    ADAP'ilVE   ACTI\  H  lES  47 

ill  this  last  sort  of  action  the  actor  seeks  to  bring  his  body  to  a 
given  point;  and  this  amounts  —  so  far  as  intellectual  function 
is  concerned  —  to  his  trying  to  secure  the  point  as  an  external 
thing.  Keeping  in  mind  the  general  principle  involved  in  learn- 
ing these  adaptive  activities,  we  must  now  turn  to  activities 
of  a  special  character.  If  one  will  make  up  a  face  before  a 
child  of  three  who  is  not  deeply  engaged  at  the  moment,  it  will 
probably  be  reproduced  at  once  more  or  less  completely,  and  com- 
monly without  deliberate  intent  on  the  imitator's  part.  His 
action  will  occur  as  a  sort  of  echo  of  the  copy.  When  children 
are  learning  to  talk,  at  two  years  or  so,  they  often  repeat  the 
words  they  hear  about  them  in  a  parrotlike  way,  seem- 
ingly as  mechanically  as  a  musical  instrument,  a  phenomena 
piano,  for  instance,  will  sometimes  respond  to  the  °  "^'^'"y 
tones  of  the  human  voice.  And  language  is  mentioned  merely 
as  a  typical  activity. 

The  phenomenon  in  question  is  too  familiar  to  require  many 
instances  in  illustration,  though  Cooley  has  registered  an  ex- 
ception to  the  prevaiKng  view  that  children  are  great  imitators. 
He  thinks  they  like  to  be  let  alone  to  work  out  their  own  ideas. 
But  from  what  source  do  their  ideas  come?  Of  course,  every 
normal  child  wishes  to  carry  out  his  own  undertakings ;  he  does 
not  like  to  have  an  adult  or  anyone  else  break  in  on  his  activi- 
ties; but  this  does  not  mean  that  he  is  not  an  imitator.  It 
simply  means  that  he  desires  to  be  left  free  so  that  he  may 
imitate,  that  he  may  by  his  own  effort  reproduce  what  is  going 
on  about  him.  He  does  not  want  someone  else  to  do  his  imitat- 
ing ;  this  is  probably  the  explanation  of  his  resistance  to  adult 
interference. 

It  is  clear  that,  considering  the  needs  of  adaptation,  imita- 
tion is  of  the  utmost  importance,  and  the  tendency  to  imi- 
tate seems  to  have  been  carefully  provided  for  in  the  original 
endowment  of  the  individual. 


48  Mi.NiAi.  i)i:\  i:i.()i»Mi;\r  and  KDicAriON" 

All  ol)sel■\e^^  agifc  thai  tluuc  is  i)r(»l)al)ly  no  iniitation  dur- 
ing the  first  three  months  of  life.  Some  have  detected  what 
„^     ,         thcv  considered  to  be  imitation  at  the  beginning;  of 

when  does  '  ^  . 

imitation        the  fourth  month,  but  in  the  case  of  the  children  the 
^^'"'  writer  has  observed  the  first  clearly  imitative  act  of 

which  he  could  be  sure  did  not  appear  before  the  seventh  month. 
True,  one  may  chatter  to  a  four-months-old  child,  and  he  will 
respond  in  kind,  but  it  seems  likely  that  his  chattering  is  simply 
one  form  of  general  motor  excitement.  The  arms  and  legs, 
as  well  as  the  vocal  organs,  will  be  actively  in  motion.  And 
then  the  chattering  may  often  be  heard  when  the  child  is  play- 
ing with  his  rattle,  or  even  lying  on  his  back  and  regarding  the 
ceiling.  It  is  easy  to  be  deceived  respecting  the  child's  first 
imitations,  for  when  he  is  much  stimulated  and  is  running  through 
the  whole  gamut  of  his  motor  accomplishments,  as  he  is  con- 
stantly doing  the  first  few  months,  there  is  a  good  chance  of 
some  of  his  performances  occasionally  resembling  those  that 
have  stimulated  him,  and  the  accidental  resemblance  will  be 
taken  by  a  novice  to  be  purposeful. 

McDougall  reports  two  cases  of  imitation  during  the  fourth 
month.  From  his  description  of  one  case  it  would  seem  to  be  an 
instance  of  true  imitation.  It  consisted  in  the  child's  protrud- 
ing its  tongue  after  seeing  its  father  do  the  same  with  his  tongue. 
Preyer  reports  that  by  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  week  he  observed 
a  case  of  imitation  in  his  son  Axel.  When  the  father  would 
purse  his  lips,  Axel  would  do  the  same.  As  evidence  that  it 
was  an  imitative  act  Preyer  says  it  was  executed  less  perfectly 
than  when  it  was  done  without  any  attempt  to  reproduce  the 
copy.  But  while  there  is  some  doubt  regarding  the  imitative 
character  of  the  activities  of  a  four-months-old  child,  there  can 
be  no  question  that  imitation  begins  by  the  seventh  or  eighth 
month  with  the  majority  of  children.  By  the  twelfth  month 
the  child  is  repeating  many  of  the  activities  occurring  about 


PRIMITIVE  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITIES  49 

him.  Until  this  period  he  has  acted  largely  from  within,  in  the 
sense  that  he  has  given  expression  mainly  to  his  instincts ; 
but  now  he  begins  to  take  account  of  his  environment  and  to 
reflect  the  social  phases  thereof.  His  activities,  which  were 
originally  unorganized  or  random,  now  begin  to  be  arranged 
into  certain  systems  that  reproduce  the  types  presented  in 
his  surroundings.  But  while  the  child  copies  the  models  about 
him,  still  his  imitations  have  a  certain  degree  of  individuahty. 
He  does  not  hit  the  mark  exactly  in  his  talking,  or  facial  ex- 
pressions, or  performances  of  any  sort.  Take,  for  example, 
the  imitation  of  reading  that  comes  in  due  course  with  most 
children.  The  imitator  seizes  a  book  when  he  hears  someone 
reading,  and  he  chatters  to  himself.  He  reproduces  the  simple 
fundamental  factor,  but  not  the  special  thing  that  characterizes 
this  activity  and  differentiates  it  from  all  others. 

The  writer  has  made  experiments  with  children  up  to  the 
twelfth  year  in  causing  them  to  imitate  arm  and  bodily  move- 
ments, and  hnguistic  combinations,  and  it  has  seemed  that  as 
a  general  principle,  they  reproduce  the  type  of  perform-  ^  g^. 
ance  which  they  have  been  accustomed  to,  but  they  over-  ception  in 
look  tJie  novel  particulars  of  the  copy  set  them.  The 
younger  the  imitator  the  more  certain  is  this  to  be  the  case. 
For  instance,  when  the  teacher  moves  his  arms  out  horizontally 
with  a  wavelike  motion,  and  back  again  in  the  same  fashion, 
the  children  repeat  the  fundamental  characteristics  of  the 
copy,  but  the  arms  arc  held  straight,  the  wrists  rigid,  and  the 
fingers  tense.  Even  though  one  calls  special  attention  to  the 
details  of  the  copy,  the  children  appear  to  see  and  appreciate 
only  what  is  to  some  extent  familiar  to  them  through  their 
own  performances.  In  teaching  a  few  children  between  five 
and  seven  some  gymnastic  movements,  the  writer  found  that 
simply  setting  the  copy  before  them  was  quite  ineffective.  He 
had  actually  to  manipulate  their  arms  and  bodies  in  order  to  give 


50  MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

them  cues  so  they  could  execute  the  movements  in  question. 
Repeating  this  mechanical  process  a  few  times,  he  found  he 
could  then  lead  the  children  to  attend  to  the  details  of  the 
movements,  whereas  by  simply  looking  at  him  they  saw  the 
general  but  not  the  particular  characteristics  of  the  copy.  Their 
attention  picked  out  only  the  familiar  element  in  the  complex 
whole,  the  thing  ilicy  had  often  done  or  the  thing  which  seemed 
to  them  like  something  they  had  done.  This  principle  applies 
with  even  greater  force  to  the  imitation  of  speech,  writing,  and  the 
Uke. 

Even  in  the  case  of  an  adult  imitating  new  activities,  the 
principle  here  in  question  may  be  seen  operating.  Special 
jjjg  features  of  a  copy  to  which  the  imitator  has  not  had 

principle        his  attention  specifically  drawn  in  the  effort  to  per- 

iUustrated  ,  111.,.  1        •      • 

in  adult  form  them  will  be  overlooked  in  ms  early  imita- 
imitabon  tions.  He  will  reproduce,  that  is  to  say,  the  general 
character  of  the  complex  act  he  observes,  but  not  the  individ- 
ual details  of  which  he  has  not  taken  special  account.  In  the 
game  of  golf,  for  example,  the  coach  takes  a  certain  character- 
istic position  before  his  pupil.  He  grasps  and  swings  his  clubs 
in  a  special  manner,  but  the  novice  does  not  notice  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  the  "addressing"  position,  or  the 
particular  coordinations  in  ''driving,"  or  "putting,"  or  any 
of  the  other  strokes.  It  is  probable  that  the  novice  really  does 
not  apperceive  anything  but  the  general  upright  position  in  the 
"addressing"  position.  The  eye  reports,  "the  coach  stands 
erect,"  and  immediately  "stands  erect"  is  translated  into  the 
habitual  erect  position  of  the  novice.  If  the  copy  set  before  a 
learner  be  quite  new,  the  wise  coach  will  not  depend  upon  ob- 
servation alone,  but  he  will  actually  manipulate  the  muscles 
of  his  pupil  and  so  give  him  the  feel  of  the  special  adjustments 
he  is  trying  to  establish.  The  pujMJ  will  be  made  to  energize 
certain  muscles  and  relax  others,  and  the  tutor  will  place  his 


PRIMITIVE   FORMS   OF  ADAPTRE   ACTIVITIES  51 

hands,  shoulders,  and  so  on  in  the  desired  positions,  and  he  will 
in  this  way  mechanically  aid  the  learner  in  making  the  right 
coordinations  in  executing  his  stroke. 

The  image  of  any  movement  which  one  is  capable  of  perform- 
ing may  be  reinstated  by  perceiving  the  movement  or  one  re- 
sembling it  in  another,  and  then  he  will  act  somewhat  like  that 
other ;  that  is,  he  will  imitate  him.  To  put  it  in  another  way, 
the  apprehension  of  an  activity  in  other  persons  amounts  to 
practically  the  same  in  its  motor  effect  as  if  the  image  of  the 
activity  had  appeared  spontaneously  or  after  reflection  in  one's 
own  mind.  Whenever  the  dog  barks  in  the  child's  presence, 
or  the  wind  whistles  through  the  cracks,  or  the  kitten  purrs 
or  rolls  over  on  the  floor,  or  his  brother  or  sister  cries,  laughs, 
runs  or  does  anything  else  he  has  consciously  done,  he  will 
tend  to  repeat  the  activity  in  what  appears  much  like  a  reflex 
manner.  This  tendency  decreases  with  age,  for  as  the  years 
pass  one's  activities  become  ever  more  completely  established 
in  definite  systems.  One's  modes  of  response  to  stimulations, 
in  all  this  implies,  tend  to  become  fixed,  so  that  he  adopts  new 
modes  with  ever  increasing  difficulty.  Images  of  movements 
not  within  the  circle  of  habitual  ones  receive  less  and  ^^ 

The  course 

less  attention  as  one  approaches  maturity ;    and  in  of  deveiop- 
time  they  make  little  or  no  impression  upon  the  sys-  respecTto 
tem  of  images  that  have  acquired  the  right  of  way.   imitative- 
In  one  sense,  a  man's  ''character"  means  just  the 
sum  of  these  settled  modes  of  action  which  are  practically  un- 
alterable.    They  resist  change ;    the  man  moves  about  among 
his  fellows,  but  their  personalities  rarely  find  admission  into  his 
springs  of  conduct.     Ordinarily  a  man  has  the  manners  and  cus- 
toms at  fifty-five  that  he  had  at  thirty-five ;    his  individuality 
has  preserved  itself  from  modification  by  the  other  selves  he  has 
come  in  contact  with  for  twenty  years. 
But  things  are  different  with  the  child.     He  has  the  equip- 


52  MENTAL    l)i:\EL()PMKN  r   AND    EDUCATION 

ineiil  needed  lor  ;u  tion,  hut  for  the  niosl  part  he  has  no  estah- 
lished  modes  of  using  it,  so  he  freely  patterns  after  the  copies 
that  are  presented  to  him.  He  is  plastic,  as  we  say,  or  im- 
pressionable with  reference  to  the  personalities  with  whom  he 
comes  in  contact.  Of  course,  the  young  child  does  not  repro- 
duce all  Iho  expressions  of  the  personalities  he  encounters. 
He  takes  the  very  simplest  copies  at  the  outset  —  pursing  the 
lips  as  a  type;  then  those  a  little  more  involved — ^ bo-peep,  and 
simple  gestures,  facial  expressions,  vocalizations  and  postures, 
for  example.  Then  later  he  imitates  more  complex  acts  in- 
volved in  the  accomplishment  of  relatively  simple  tasks  of  some 
kind,  as  carpentry  or  farming  or  baking  or  nursing,  and  so  on. 
As  he  grows  facile  in  these  very  concrete  activities  he  responds 
to  ever  more  complicated  ones  in  which  the  mental  factors  be- 
come more  important  and  the  motor  factors  are  less  in  evidence ; 
he  plays  at  school,  for  instance,  or  preaching,  or  society  for- 
malities. He  comes,  last  of  all,  in  his  high-school  or  college 
period,  to  imitate  the  social,  political,  religious,  and  what  may 
be  called  the  scientific  activities  going  on  in  his  environment  or 
in  the  books  he  reads.  In  this  last  period  there  may  still  be  some 
remains  of  his  earlier  responses ;  he  may  imitate  the  modes  of 
speech  and  the  manners  of  his  comrades,  but  this  activity  is  not 
so  prominent  as  in  his  early  days,  and  the  traits  he  copies  are 
the  more  subtle  and  less  conspicuous  ones  which  as  a  child  he 
would  have  missed. 

It  remains  to  be  pointed  out  that  while  normally  children 
from  the  age  of  three  to  twenty  indulge  freely  in  imitative  ac- 
tivity, still  some  are  more  imitative  than  others  of  the  same  age. 
The  latter  individuals  more  than  the  former  are  governed  in 
their  actions  by  images  subjectively  aroused.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  individuals  differ  in  respect  to  the  vividness,  virility 
and  persistence  of  their  subjective  mental  life ;  some  "  live 
within,"  as  we  say,  more  than  the  majority  of  persons.     So  the 


PRIMITIVE   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITIES  53 

traits  of  persons  among  whom  they  live  are  not  noted  and  are  not 
imitated  as  in  the  case  of  those-  who  are  more  outward-look- 
ing or  objective  in  their  activities.  Persons  of  the  latter  type  al- 
ways readily  adopt  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  among 
whom  they  live,  while  those  of  the  former  type  retain  their 
individual  characteristics  for  a  comparatively  long  time  or 
even  permanently  without  modification  by  the  personalities 
about  them. 


CHAPTER   IV 

HIGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIMTY:  GENERALIZATION, 
SYMBOLIZATION,  IMAGINATION,  REASON 

By  way  of  illustrating  the  principles  which  it  is  intended  to 

present  in  this  chapter,  a  description  may  be  given  of  the  abilities 

of  the  so-called  "educated"  horse,  ''King  Pharaoh," 

The 

adaptive  which  the  writer  recently  examined.  It  is  widely 
activities  believed  that  this  horse  possesses  intelligence  of  a 
high  order  as  revealed  in  his  ability  to  read,  to  solve 
complicated  arithmetical  problems,  to  distinguish  colors,  and  to 
remember  the  names  and  discern  the  character  of  persons.  It  is 
claimed  also  that  he  is  capable  of  distinguishing  forenoon  from 
afternoon  and  of  drawing  subtle  conclusions  from  concrete  data, 
such,  for  instance,  as  determining  from  the  aspect  of  a  person's 
countenance  whether  the  person  is  skeptical  regarding  the 
genuineness  of  the  remarkable  exhibition  of  "human  intel- 
ligence" given  by  the  horse  in  his  public  performances. 

In  this  connection  reference  should  be  made  to  the  reputation 
of  the  trained  horses  of  Elbcrfcld,  Germany,  and  particularly  of 
"Clever  Hans,"  "Muhamed"  and  "Zarif."  Herr  Karl  Krall, 
the  trainer  of  Muhamed  and  Zarif ,  has  described  in  great  detail 
the  abilities  of  these  horses  in  his  Denkende  Tiere.  In  private 
letters  to  the  writer,  Herr  Krall  has  expressed  his  conviction 
that  his  horses  possess  human  intelligence;  and  he  seemingly 
believes  that  with  patient  and  skillful  teaching  horses  can  be 
made  to  perform  practically  all  the  intellectual  feats  of  which 
human  beings  are  capable.     Maurice  Maeterlinck,  who  made  a 

54 


HIGHER   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  55 

journey  to  Elberfeld  to  observe  and  test  Hans,  Muhamed  and 
Zarif ,  has  reported  that  after  subjecting  them  to  experiments  in 
which  he  thought  he  was  able  to  eliminate  all  suggestion  and 
deception  he  reached  the  conclusion  that  everything  claimed 
for  the  horses  by  Herr  Von  Ostend,  the  trainer  of  Hans,  and  Herr 
Krall  is  true.  Other  observers,  however,  and  among  them  the 
Berlin  psychologist,  Pfungst,  have  made  an  adverse  report  upon 
the  human  intelligence  of  the  horses. 

In  examining  King  Pharaoh,  the  writer  tested  him  with  respect 
to  his  arithmetical  ability,  his  power  to  read  and  to  spell,  his 
understanding  of  spoken  language,  his  discrimination  j^^ 
of  colors,  and  his  recognition  and  remembrance  of  Pharaoh's 

abilities 

persons.  During  the  first  test,  King  Pharaoh's 
teacher  and  his  caretakers  were  present  and  gave  directions 
to  the  horse  to  execute  the  tasks  as  they  were  set  by  the 
writer.  There  were  thirty  men  and  women  who  had  been 
invited  to  observe  the  horse  in  his  performances,  and  he  gave 
such  an  apparent  exhibition  of  intelligence  that  he  elicited  the 
heartiest  applause  from  his  audience.  The  first  task  set  required 
the  addition  of  two  numbers  of  five  digits  each,  the  calculation 
of  their  sum  involving  the  process  of  carrying.  King  was  com- 
manded by  his  trainer  to  study  the  problem  and  when  he  had 
fixed  it  in  his  mind  to  go  to  a  trough  in  which  a  number  of 
blocks  containing  figures  were  placed,  and  to  push  out  in  order 
the  blocks  containing  the  figures  denoting  the  sum  of  the  two 
numbers.  King  performed  this  task  accurately ;  and  in  each 
case  he  indicated  to  the  audience  the  number  to  be  carried  as  a 
result  of  the  addition  of  the  figures  of  one  denomination  to  the 
figures  of  the  next  higher  denomination.  In  the  same  way  he 
performed  processes  indicating  apparently  that  he  could  sub- 
tract, multiply  and  divide  accurately.  Also,  he  could  solve 
problems  involving  the  consideration  together  of  five  or  six 
factors.     He  could  read  sentences  written  on  the  board,  such  as 


56     MENIAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

''King,  take  the  yellow  llag  and  give  it  to  Superintendent 
—  — ."  He  could  spell  words  like  "Madison"  and  "Wis- 
consin." He  could  tell  the  hour  of  the  day  when  looking 
at  a  watch  with  a  clear  dial  face.  When  asked  whether  it 
was  forenoon  or  afternoon  he  spelled  "afternoon,"  which  was 
correct. 

The  initial  test  lasted  for  about  an  hour.  Then  King's  teacher 
and  caretakers  consented  to  leave  the  hall  and  permit  the  writer 
to  subject  the  horse  to  another  test.  To  make  a  long  story  very 
short,  — •  the  same  tasks  that  were  assigned  King  in  the  first 
"sitting"  and  which  he  had  apparently  performed  accurately 
when  Dr.  Boyd  was  present  were  set  him  in  turn  again,  but  he 
was  not  able  to  perform  one  of  them.  He  gave  not  the  slightest 
indication  that  he  knew  even  the  meaning  of  the  tests  or  had 
any  conception  of  how  to  execute  them.  When  King  was  vigor- 
ously urged  to  perform  a  task  he  would  respond  by  pawing,  but 
this  was  the  only  response,  except  a  general  attitude  of  aware- 
ness, which  could  be  elicited  from  him.  Throughout  the  second 
performance  King  appeared  to  be  even  more  attentive  than  in 
the  first,  and  he  was  apparently  responding  as  intelligently  as 
his  comprehension  and  ability  would  enable  him  to  do.  So  far 
as  a  horse  can  express  his  desire  to  comply  with  a  command. 
King  gave  such  expression.  Several  men  in  the  audience  who 
had  had  experience  in  the  training  of  horses  attempted  to  secure 
some  expression  from  King  which  would  show  that  he  under- 
stood the  tasks  which  were  set  him  ;  but  the  only  reaction  that 
could  be  secured  was  pawing,  and  dodging  away  when  he  was 
commanded  too  vehemently  to  execute  his  tasks. 

In  the  report  of  his  examination  of  Clever  Hans,  Professor 
Pfungst  said  that  apparently  the  responses  of  the  horse  were  all 
in  obedience  to  certain  subtle  signs  or  cues  which  were  given  him 
consciously  or  unconsciously  by  his  trainer.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that  King  Pharaoh's  apparent  understanding  of  tasks  and 


HIGHER   FORMS  OF  ADAPTR'E   ACTlM'n'  57 

his  ability  Lo  perform  tlicin  arc  due  largely  or  wholly  Lo  the  cues 
which  he  receives  from  his  teacher,  who  declares  that  he  does 
not  know  how  King  performs  his  tasks,  and  so  far  as  the 
writer  can  tell  the  trainer  is  sincere  and  honest  in  his  statement. 
He  must,  then,  guide  the  horse  unawares.  During  the  first  test 
he  was  constantly  talking  to  King.  He  was  in  full  view  of  King 
while  he  was  performing,  and  he  could  see  whether  or  not  the 
horse  was  working  accurately.  He  was  active  with  hands,  feet 
and  body,  as  well  as  voice,  and  his  intonations  varied  during 
the  progress  of  the  tests.  In  the  circumstances  it  was  not 
possible  to  determine  whether  certain  intonations  uniformly 
occurred  when  the  horse  approached  a  block  which  should  be 
pushed  out  of  the  trough  or  when  he  was  opposite  a  flag  which 
he  was  commanded  to  take  to  a  particular  person  in  the  audience. 
Again,  it  was  impossible  to  determine  whether  the  trainer  uni- 
formly made  certain  gestures  or  certain  facial  expressions  or 
assumed  certain  bodily  attitudes  which  would  be  cues  to  the 
horse,  informing  him  when  he  should  push  out  a  block  or  seize 
a  flag.  Attempts  have  been  made  but  without  success  to  induce 
the  trainer  to  subject  the  horse  to  further  tests  under  controlled 
conditions  which  might  make  it  possible  to  ascertain  precisely 
what  cues  the  trainer  used  consciously  or  unconsciously  to 
guide  King  in  performing  the  simple  processes  of  pushing  out 
blocks,  or  seizing  a  flag  and  throwing  it  at  a  particular  person 
in  a  group. 

It  may  be  asserted  without  hesitation  that  when  the  trainer's 
personality  is  removed,  King  Pharaoh  can  perform  only  as  a 
horse ;  he  is  entirely  incapable  of  any  of  the  special  Types  of 
intellectual  feats  with  which  he  is  credited.  But  inteUigence 
for  the  purpose  of  impressing  certain  distinctions  between  what 
may  be  called  types  of  inteUigence,  let  us  suppose  that  King 
can  add  two  numbers  of  five  digits  each,  involving  the  factor  of 
carrying,  when  his  trainer  is  present ;  but  when  his  trainer  leaves 


58  MENTAL   DE\  ELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

liini  he  cannot  jHTform  ihc  task.  Then  his  intellectual  i)rocesses 
must  depend  upon  sensory  stimulation  of  a  very  delinite  char- 
acter. If  he  can  build  up  the  concept  that  seven  and  eight  added 
together  make  lifteen,  one  of  the  factors  entering  into  the  con- 
cept must  be  the  trainer's  individuality,  and  when  this  factor  is 
absent  the  concept  cannot  function.  In  other  words,  the  con- 
cept of  nunuricai  relation  can  have  no  independence  as  a  con- 
cept if  it  cannot  be  reinstated  except  when  the  factor  of  the 
teacher's  personality  sets  it  up,  so  to  speak ;  and  since  the 
teacher's  personahty  is  no  part  of  a  true  concept  of  numerical 
relations,  King  cannot  be  said  to  form  a  concept  at  all.  A 
child  who  could  not  add  seven  and  eight  except  when  the  person 
who  taught  him  was  present  would  not  be  considered  as  knowing 
how  much  seven  and  eight  taken  together  amounted  to.  He 
would  simply  have  formed  a  specific  response  in  a  specific  situa- 
tion, and  when  the  situation  is  modified  in  any  way  the  response 
is  impossible.  The  response,  though,  should  not  —  and  with  a 
normal  child  it  would  not  —  depend  upon  any  special  cir- 
cumstance. 

This  will  be  as  good  a  place  as  any  for  the  writer  to  express  his 
opinion  to  the  effect  that  it  is  impossible  for  King  Pharaoh  or 
any  other  horse  to  establish  the  concept  that  seven  and  eight 
make  fifteen.  There  is  no  reliable  evidence  on  record  indicating 
that  a  horse  can  make  the  integration  necessary  to  derive  the 
idea  of  a  group  of  fifteen  objects  from  the  addition  of  groups  of 
seven  and  of  eight  objects.  There  is  no  evidence,  either,  that  a 
horse  can  establish  an  association  between  the  symbols  7  and  8 
and  75  so  that  seeing  7  and  8  in  a  certain  relation  the  symbol  75 
appears.  But  assume  that  King  Pharaoh  is  capable  of  per- 
forming such  a  process ;  he  is  capable  of  it  only  under  very 
specific  conditions,  —  namely,  when  his  trainer's  personahty  is 
the  essential  factor  in  the  situation. 

Even  if  this  first  step  in  finding  the  sum  of  the  two  numbers 


HIGHER   I'ORJMS   OF   ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITY  59 

could  be  performed  by  the  horse,  it  is  beyond  belief  that  he 
could  take  the  next  step,  which  involved  not  only  the  addi- 
tion of  the  numbers  six  and  seven  but  involved  also  „ 

Senson- 

the  abstraction  of  one  ten  which  was  acquired  from  motor 
the  addition  of  the  units,  and  its  annexation  to  the  "^^^p""^® 
order  of  tens.  The  number  of  factors  necessary  to  be  kept  in 
mind  and  related  to  one  another  in  performing  this  task,  which 
is  not  a  part  of  a  horse's  instinctive  equipment,  is  beyond  the 
capacity  of  any  horse  so  far  as  reliable  observations  or  tests  have 
shown.  If  a  horse  could  execute  adaptive  activities  of  which  the 
above  is  an  illustration  he  would  cease  to  be  a  horse.  If  the 
ancestors  of  King  Pharaoh  had  been  capable  of  original  activities 
of  this  degree  of  complexity,  King  Pharaoh  would  not  have  been 
traveling  through  the  country  giving  exhibitions  for  the  financial 
benefit  of  his  master,  with  the  prospect  simply  of  receiving  an 
apple  or  a  piece  of  sugar  at  intervals  during  his  performance. 
A  horse  is  and  must  continue  to  remain  a  horse  because  his  range 
of  adaptive  activities  limits  him  to  specific  responses  to  stimuli 
along  the  lines  of  the  responses  which  his  ancestors  for  ages 
have  made.  When  he  sees  a  paper  blowing  along  the  street  or 
catches  an  odor  of  a  bear  he  will  flee  for  safety.  When  he  sees 
corn,  on  the  other  side  of  a  low  fence,  he  will  jump  to  get  it,  even 
though  the  farmer  has  put  up  signs  forbidding  horses  to  eat  his 
corn  and  even  though  the  horse  will  be  made  sick  by  his  in- 
dulgence ;  and  so  on  ad  libitum.  The  horse's  mind  is  not  con- 
structed so  that  hereditary  response  can  be  modified  in  any 
important  or  fundamental  way  by  a  consideration  of  circum- 
stances which  should  modify  it,  but  which  could  not  be  or  at  least 
were  not  taken  account  of  by  his  ancestors.  In  sum,  the  horse's 
intelligence  is  almost  entirely  of  the  sensori-motor  character,  — 
stimulation  and  habitual  reaction  without  modification  or  control 
by  significant  and  vital  factors  which  did  not  enter  into  the 
establishment  of  the  original  reaction. 


6o  MENTAL  DEXELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

King's  ancestors  were  very  sensitive  to  certain  kinds  of 
sights,  sounds  and  odors.  If  they  had  not  been  they  would 
A  horse's  ^lot  have  been  able  to  evade  their  enemies,  and  the 
responses      j-.j^^p   ^f  horses   would   havc   been  eliminated.     This 

depend  .  .    ,       , 

upon  visual,  sensitivcness  was  transmitted  as  an  mheritance  to 
olfactory  ""^  King.  He,  too,  is  exceedingly  sensitive  to  sights, 
cues  sounds  and   odors   that   once  had   connection   with 

the  welfare  of  horses.  In  giving  King  his  lessons  his  teacher 
had  connected  certain  responses  with  the  securing  of  sweets  or 
avoiding  a  whipping.  The  cues  to  these  responses  were  slight 
movements  of  hand  or  foot  or  head,  facial  expressions,  posture, 
modification  in  the  volume  of  voice,  intonation  or  possibly 
a  combination  of  all  these.  King  is  keener  in  noting  these  cues 
than  his  observers,  though  they  could  perhaps  be  trained  to  be  as 
sensitive  as  he  is.  But  on  the  occasion  of  the  experiment  re- 
ferred to  above,  the  observers  were  guided  by  the  verbal  com- 
mands, oral  or  written,  which  were  given  King,  and  they  were 
not  sensitive  to  any  other  cues ;  it  was  not  necessary  that  they 
should  have  taken  account  of  anything  but  these  verbal  com- 
mands. King  worked  from  visual  or  auditory  cues  to  certain 
responses  which  had  been  repeatedly  forced  upon  him  through 
reward  or  punishment.  Deaf  and  dumb  persons  are  much 
keener  in  noting  distinctions  in  the  movements  of  lips  and  vocal 
organs  in  speech  than  are  normal  persons,  simply  because  they 
must  depend  wholly  upon  these  cues  in  interpreting  what  a 
speaker  means.  This  principle  will  account  for  King's  extraor- 
dinary keenness  in  noting  inconspicuous  bodily  movements  or 
attitudes,  facial  expressions  or  intonations  which  were  missed 
by  most  of  his  observers. 

We  now  have  access  to  a  considerable  amount  of  careful 
experimentation  on  the  behavior  of  animals  from  the  simplest 
protozoa  to  the  highest  mammals,  including  Witmer's  chim- 
panzee,   "Peter,    the    monkey    with    a    mind."      Any    person 


HIGHER   FORMS   OF   ADAPTIVE   ACTIX  liY  6i 

who  will  without  preconception  review  the  available  data  re- 
garding animal  intelligence   secured  as  a  result  of  this  experi- 
mentation cannot  fail  to  reach  the  conclusion  that  ThequaUty 
animals  of  every  species  are  determined  in  their  re-  of  animal 

int6lliG[Gncc 

sponses,  absolutely  among  the  lower  animals,  including 
the  ants  and  bees,  celebrated  for  their  intelligence,  and  very 
largely  among  the  higher  animals,  by  visual,  auditory,  tactile  and 
olfactory  stimulations  directly  connected  with  their  mode  of  life 
as  governed  by  their  heredity  and  habitat.  Holmes  was  able 
to  cause  a  crustacean  to  behave  in  a  manner  adapted  to  secure 
food  from  him  whenever  he  came  into  the  room  in  which  the 
creature  was  fed ;  it  was  able  to  connect  stimuli  derived  from 
the  feeder's  presence  with  the  gaining  of  food  so  that  in  time 
the  stimuli  would  release  the  actions  in  anticipation  which  in 
the  past  were  set  up  only  when  the  creature  was  actually  realizing 
sensations  from  the  food.  Lloyd  Morgan,  Lubbock,  the  Peck- 
hams,  Fabre,  Mills,  Washburn,  Bateson,  Jennings,  Watson, 
Thorndike  and  others  who  have  observed  the  adaptive  activities 
of  animals  and  who  have  subjected  them  to  tests  to  determine 
in  how  far  they  could  modify  their  habitual  responses  in  order 
to  adjust  themselves  to  modified  situations  have  cited  a  great 
number  of  instances  showing  the  capacity  of  animals  of  low 
and  of  high  degree  to  react  with  varying  acuteness  to  cues 
when  these  have  been  directly  connected  with  the  gaining  of 
food  or  avoidance  of  pain  or  the  protection  of  the  young ;  but 
the  responses  of  all  animals  are  closely  and  as  a  rule  entirely 
dependent  upon  sensory  stimuli  which  through  trial  and  error 
or  training  have  become  connected  with  the  hereditary  adap- 
tations of  the  animals,  —  the  adaptations  which  were  essential 
to  the  preservation  of  the  species. 

Undoubtedly  some  of  those  who  read  these  lines  will  recall 
many  instances  of  animal  activities  which  apparently  indicated 
a  higher  type  of  intelligent  response  than  has  been  accredited 


62      MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

them  above.  Popular  literature  contains  innumerable  anec- 
dotes concerning  the  cunning,  the  acumen,  the  sagacity,  the 
sound  judgment  and  the  reasoning  powers  of  animals, 
miscon-  The  Writer  has  been  favored  with  many  tales  of  this 
regarding  kiiid.  He  has  asked  a  number  of  classes  of  university 
the  abilities    students  to  give  descrii)tions  of  instances  of  remark- 

of  animals  .,.,,.  i  •   i         i  111  , 

able  annual  intelligence  which  they  had  observed. 
In  this  way  he  has  accumulated  hundreds  of  accounts  of  the  sa- 
gacity of  dogs,  for  example.  One  instance  is  typical  of  others ;  a 
graduate  student  in  a  university  writes:  "When  I  was  on  the 
farm  we  had  a  collie  dog  which  could  be  relied  upon  to  do  what- 
ever he  was  told  to  do.  When  Mother  would  ask  him  to  go  to  the 
barn  and  tell  the  men  to  come  in  to  supj)er  he  would  hurry  off, 
find  us  men  in  the  barn  or  wherever  we  were  and  show  us  plainly 
enough  that  we  were  wanted  for  supper.  When  it  was  time  to 
get  the  cows,  I  would  say  to  him  :  '  We  ought  to  have  the  cows 
now.  You  go  and  bring  them  in,'  and  he  would  trot  off,  round 
them  up  and  bring  them  into  the  yard.  He  liked  to  go  with  us 
to  town.  Sometimes  we  would  say  to  him  :  'You  can't  go  with 
us  to-day.  You  must  stay  at  home.'  He  would  turn  about 
and  go  despondently  into  the  house  and  stay  there.  In  a  great 
many  other  ways  he  indicated  that  he  could  understand  what  we 
said  to  him  and  was  able  to  think  through  difficult  situations." 
When  the  writer  of  this  description  was  questioned  regarding 
all  the  details  involved  in  giving  commands  to  the  dog,  it  was 
apparent  that  the  principal  cues  which  guided  the  animal  were 
not  taken  account  of  by  the  observer.  When  the  woman  in 
the  house  told  the  dog  to  go  and  bring  the  men  to  supper  the 
writer  of  the  note  did  not  know  whether  she  always  opened  the 
door  and  pointed  the  way  to  the  barn.  He  did  not  know  pre- 
cisely what  she  said,  —  whether  it  was  "Run  and  find  Father 
and  the  boys  and  tell  them  supper  is  ready,"  or  whether  she 
mentioned  the  names  of  the  boys  or  whether  she  simply  said 


HIGHER    FORMS   OF  ADAl'TIXE   ACTlM'l  Y  63 

''Supper."  And  then  when  the  dog  told  the  men  to  come  to 
supper,  the  one  who  reported  the  dog's  actions  did  not  know 
exactly  what  the  dog  did,  —  whether  he  ran  to  each  one  and 
then  turned  about  and  ran  toward  the  house,  or  whether  he 
barked  in  a  peculiar  way,  as  much  as  to  say  "Supper  is  ready; 
come  with  me,"  or  whether  he  wagged  his  tail,  or  what  he  did. 
When  asked  how  he  knew  that  the  dog  was  trying  to  tell  Mm 
that  supper  was  ready  the  observer  was  confused.  It  was  ap- 
parent that  the  dog  did  not  behave  differently  when  he  went  to 
tell  the  men  supper  was  ready  from  the  way  he  did  on  a  great 
number  of  other  occasions,  but  the  men  knew  it  was  supper 
time ;  they  knew  that  the  woman  in  the  house  had  signaled 
to  the  dog  before  supper  time  to  run  to  the  barn.  They  were 
looking  for  a  summons  to  supper  and  it  was  signal  enough 
when  the  dog  came  running  toward  them.  It  was  not  necessary 
that  he  should  have  had  anything  whatever  in  his  mind  about 
supper,  or  that  he  should  have  had  any  different  expression  from 
the  one  he  had  on  any  other  occasion  in  order  that  the  men  would 
know  they  were  wanted  in  the  house.  The  observer  who  re- 
ported the  incident  neglected  the  really  essential  factors  in  his 
report  of  the  dog's  performance ;  he  was  disposed  to  think  that 
the  dog  had  intelligence  and  he  ascribed  to  the  dog's  actions  vastly 
more  of  purpose  and  understanding  than  there  probably  was  in 
them. 

Again,  when  the  observer  was  asked  just  what  he  did  and  what 
he  said  to  his  dog  when  he  was  commanded  to  bring  in  the  cows, 
it  was  apparent  again  that  he  had  neglected  most  of  the  vital 
factors  in  the  situation.  It  developed  that  usually,  at  any  rate, 
he  would  open  the  gate  leading  from  the  field  into  the  cow  yard. 
Then  he  would  call  to  the  dog ;  he  did  not  know  whether  or  not 
there  was  a  peculiar  intonation  in  his  voice  when  he  called.  But 
this  would  not  be  necessary ;  the  mere  act  of  opening  the  gate 
was  the  dog's  cue.     The  man  might  have  said,  — ^  "I  don't  want 


64  MKNTAL    l)i:\  KLOl'.MKXT   AND    Kl  )l(  A  I'lON 

yuu  to  l)ring  in  the  cows  now"  -  and  it  is  probable  that  the  dog 
would  have  gone  off  in  precisely  the  same  way  as  if  he  had  said : 
"It  is  time  to  bring  in  the  cows  now."  The  words  used  by  the 
observer  played  at  best  only  a  very  slight  role  and  probably 
played  no  role  at  all  in  leading  the  dog  to  bring  in  the  cows. 
The  writer  had  been  able  for  several  years  to  observe  the 
activities  of  a  pure-bred  collie  dog,  "  Muffin."  One  would  f re- 
in tr  ti  ns  ^'^^iit^y  hear  people  say  of  her,  —  "She  is  as  in- 
of  a  dog's  telligent  as  a  human  being."  But  without  excep- 
gence  ^.^^  j^^^  bchavior  was  always  determined  by  vis- 
ual, auditory  or  olfactory  cues.  Muffin  would  play  rather 
intricate  games  with  children  and  adults,  but  these  games  all 
depended  so  far  as  she  was  concerned  upon  definite  sensory 
stimuli  to  which  she  would  respond  in  definite  ways.  For 
example,  she  was  taught  to  play  "hide  and  seek."  First  she 
would  run  with  a  boy  across  the  lawn  and  hide  behind  a  tree 
or  behind  a  house  at  the  end  of  the  lawn,  or  they  would  together 
run  down  the  bank  at  the  bottom  of  the  lawn  and  hide  somewhere 
along  the  shore  of  the  lake.  After  a  time,  whenever  the  game 
was  begun,  a  boy  would  stand  up  by  the  tree  that  was  used  for  the 
station,  put  his  hands  to  his  eyes  and  begin  counting,  and  Muffin 
would  run  off  without  being  accompanied  by  anyone.  She  would 
go  behind  one  of  the  trees  or  the  house  or  run  down  to  the  shore 
as  she  had  done  originally  when  she  was  being  taught.  Then 
when  the  boy  whom  Muffin  had  seen  stand  by  the  tree  sounded 
his  warning  to  all  hidcrs.  Muffin  would  come  dashing  to  the 
station.  Observers  who  noted  this  performance  thought  she 
revealed  as  much  intelligence  as  any  of  the  other  performers. 
But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  did  only  what  she  had  done  before 
when  the  conditions  were  practically  identical.  She  never  could 
learn  to  remain  hidden  in  her  secret  place  until  she  stood  a  good 
chance  of  making  the  goal  before  the  keeper  of  the  station.  The 
keeper  would  often  favor  her  because  she  was  a  dog  and  would 


HIGHER   FORMS   OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY 


65 


run  so  slowly  to  his  goal  that  Muffin  would  get  ahead  of  him. 
Muffin  never  learned  to  search  out  new  hiding  places  which 
would  afford  greater  protection  than  any  of  the  places  to  which 


j4  j5/^>'/^/>^  3,  /^oo  y/ifty 


/Tepti/e-  i'rain 


/fa/75  ^ra/r; 


/(/ea/jf£//6r>  s^etv/na  a//t/>e  a^o/e  ^/a^jf^ 

/Tf/iff/en  /e/Tg/zajoi/s  T/rot/t^/if  pe>i4^-/*7)\ 

Fig.  6.  —  A  general  view  of  the  brain  of  animals  as  compared  with  that  of  man.     (See 
exercise  13,  page  314.) 


she  had  gone  with  her  trainer.  She  did  not  try  to  pursue  new 
and  devious  methods  of  approach  to  the  station  so  as  to  throw 
the  keeper  off  the  track.  In  brief,  she  did  what  she  had  pre- 
viously done  with  one  who  had  human  intelligence,  but  she 


66  MEN'1.\I>   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

could  not  construct  and  use  the  concept  of  hiding  in  a  safe  place 
and  making  her  aj)proach  to  the  goal  in  the  most  protected  and 
least  conspicuous  way.  She  could  perform  the  specific  acts  which 
she  had  performed,  but  she  could  not  apply  the  principle  in- 
volved so  as  to  develop  new  and  improved  performances. 

This  instance  is  typical  of  all  that  Muffin  could  do.  About 
the  house  she  was  very  sensitive  to  what  was  said  to  her.  But 
those  who  spoke  to  her  when  she  responded  intelligently  always 
used  simple  words  and  they  were  limited  in  suggestion  to  definite 
responses  related  to  food,  to  leaving  the  house,  to  lying  down, 
to  jumping  or  barking  and  the  like.  Even  when  these  words 
were  used  they  were  accompanied  by  appropriate  gestures, 
attitudes  or  intonations.  When  it  was  desired  that  Muffin 
should  jump  a  pole  or  chair  or  other  object  put  before  her,  as  a 
cue  she  would  be  invited  by  an  appropriate  gesture  of  the  hand 
to  make  the  jump.  The  one  giving  her  directions  would  some- 
time uses  complex  sentences  as  "Mufiin,  you  must  jump  as  high 
as  you  can  now,"  and  then  when  she  would  jump  high  the 
observers  would  be  apt  to  say:  "Isn't  it  remarkable  how  she 
understands  what  is  said  to  her  ?  "  But  it  was  a  simple  matter  to 
note  that  she  got  her  cue  from  the  position  of  the  hands  or  the 
pole  over  which  she  was  to  jump,  and  the  likelihood  is  that  she 
did  not  understand  a  single  word  said  to  her,  unless  the  word 
"jump"  might  have  suggested  a  definite  response. 

A  large  portion  of  Muffin's  responses  that  seemed  intelligent 
were  reactions  simply  to  opening  the  doors  of  the  house  or  the 
door  of  the  automobile,  or  putting  on  wraps  to  go  out,  or  facial 
expressions  indicating  pleasure  and  desire  to  have  sport  with  her, 
or  the  opposite  type  of  expression  of  displeasure  accompanied 
always  by  harsh,  condemning  tones.  In  practically  all  these 
instances  language  would  be  used  and  the  observers  would  think 
that  Muffin  was  responding  Lo  the  language,  when  as  a  matter 
of  fact  the  language  as  such       divorced  from  facial  expression, 


HIGHER   FORMS   OF  ADAPTR  E   AC'I  I\  I  PY  67 

gesticulation  and  bodily  attitude  —  was  playing  no  role  what- 
ever in  MuiHn's  reactions. 

In  order  further  to  emphasize  the  dilTcrence  between  the 
animal  type  of  adaptive  activity  and  the  distinctly  human  type, 
suppose  we  subject  a  child  to  the  tests  which  were  one  trait 
given  to  King  Pharaoh  as  described  in  preceding  h^^'an"*^*'^ 
paragraphs.  At  the  time  the  writer  tested  King  he  intei- 
was  nine  years  of  age.  Ask  a  nine-year-old  child  symboi- 
to  add  the  two  numbers  which  King  failed  to  add  i^ation 
except  in  response  to  cues  given  by  his  trainer.  The  child's 
first  act  would  differentiate  his  intellectual  ability  sharply  from 
King's.  When  he  looked  upon  the  figures  7  and  8  in  the  rela- 
tion of  addition,  the  figure  15  would  appear  in  consciousness.  If 
King  could  find  the  sum  of  seven  and  eight  at  all,  he  would  have 
to  image  a  group  of  seven  objects  and  a  group  of  eight  objects 
and  then  image  the  result  of  putting  them  together;  that  is 
to  say,  he  would  have  to  image  groups  of  seven,  of  eight  and 
then  of  fifteen.  If  King  could  perform  even  this  concrete  pro- 
cess he  would  have  gained  a  mastery  over  his  environment  by 
combining  and  adjusting  forces  which  would  have  made  him 
less  the  creature  of  circumstances  and  conditions  than  he  actually 
is.  But  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  the  principle  which  must  be 
brought  out  here,  let  it  be  supposed  that  King  could  image  the 
concrete  situation  in  adding  seven  and  eight  and  deriving  fifteen. 
He  could  not  perform  the  symbolic  process  of  associating  the 
figures  7  and  S  and  derive  the  figure  ij  and  then  interpret  what 
these  figures  meant.  Apparently  no  provision  has  been  made 
in  the  animal  mind  for  using  symbols  for  content  and  utilizing 
these  symbols  in  place  of  the  realities  which  they  denote,  asso- 
ciating them  and  operating  upon  them  as  the  contents  which 
they  symbolize  might  be  associated  and  operated  upon. 

It  will  readily  be  granted,  no  doubt,  that  one  could  hardly 
overemphasize  the  importance  of  symbolization  for  increasing 


68  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND    EDUCATION 

the  ningi"  of  adaptation.  The-  child  who  cannot  learn  to  under- 
stand or  use  language  or  figures  cannot  achieve  a  much  higher 
Importance  degree  of  adaptation  than  the  dog  or  the  horse  or  any 
of  sym-  other  animal  that  is  incapable  of  understanding  and 
in  adaptive  using  symbols,  language  particularly.  Why  does  lan- 
actmty  guage   play   so  important  a  role  in  adaptive  activ- 

ities? First,  because  it  makes  it  possible  for  the  individual  to 
condense  his  experience  and  react  to  a  simple  sign  which  carries 
the  meaning  of  the  experience.  To  illustrate  the  point;  take 
a  sentence  which  the  writer  has  just  heard  addressed  to  a  nine- 
year-old  child.  ''Father  is  going  to  bring  out  the  auto ;  if  you 
will  finish  your  lessons  quickly  you  may  ride  out  to  the  farm  and 
you  can  drive  the  horses  while  they  are  loading  hay."  Instantly 
the  boy  applies  himself  to  his  task.  In  four  seconds  he  grasped  the 
significance  of  a  vast  amount  of  extremely  complicated  experience. 
If  he  was  compelled,  in  order  to  determine  what  should  be  done 
in  the  present  situation,  to  run  through  all  the  concrete  experiences 
involved  in  the  father's  bringing  out  the  automobile  and  driving 
through  the  city  and  the  country  and  reaching  the  farm  and  all 
the  details  related  to  horses  and  hay,  wagons  and  driving,  it 
would  have  taken  him  about  as  long  to  review  the  experiences 
as  it  did  to  acc^uire  them.  The  relation  of  his  performance  of 
the  task  before  him  to  the  involved  process  of  going  to  the  farm 
and  driving  the  hay  wagon  is  instantly  felt  with  sufl&cient  definite- 
ness  to  determine  his  action. 

By  the  use  of  language  the  individual  can  make  responses 
without  being  actually  in  the  situations  to  which  the  responses 
relate.  He  can  pre-adapt  himself  to  situations ;  he  can  profit 
by  the  adaptations  of  his  fellows.  He  can  take  an  attitude,  for 
instance,  toward  situations  in  California  though  he  is  living 
in  Wisconsin ;  he  can  determine  from  the  language  used  by 
others  whether  he  should  go  to  California  to  live  or  whether  he 
should  invest  there  and  so  on.     One  who  can  understand  and 


HIGHER   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITY  69 

use  language  can  take  advantage  of  the  adaptations  made  by 
his  ancestors.  Plato  exerts  a  strong  influence  upon  the  be- 
havior of  many  individuals  in  these  times ;  his  counsel  plays  as 
important  a  role  in  the  life  of  some  persons  to-day  as  does  the 
counsel  of  their  nearest  neighbors  or  anyone  else  now  living. 
Thus  the  individual  is  the  heir  of  all  the  ages  and  he  lives  in  all 
climes  and  places,  because  by  means  of  symbols  which  denote 
experience  he  can  shape  his  behavior  in  view  of  all  that  men  have 
discovered  in  the  art  of  living  in  the  past  or  are  discovering 
anywhere  in  the  world  at  present. 

What  is  true  of  language  is  true  in  a  measure  of  other  forms  of 
symboHzation,  figures  especially.  The  intellectual  process  in- 
volved in  using  words  for  the  content  of  experience  is  the  same 
in  principle,  though  it  differs  in  degree  of  complexity,  as  in  using 
figures.  A  properly  taught  person  who  glances  at  7  and  S  and 
derives  ij  feels  what  these  symbols  mean,  though  he  does  not 
focalize  the  concrete  details  which  are  denoted  by  them.  When 
such  an  one  performs  processes  with  figurative  symbols  which 
denote  complicated  realities,  as  the  amassing  of  millions  of 
dollars  or  objects  of  any  kind  or  the  computation  of  the  force 
exerted  by  various  agencies,  —  the  winds,  electrical  power, 
gases,  and  so  on  ad  libitum,  —  he  feels  the  significance  of  every 
process  and  he  knows  the  meaning  of  his  conclusions,  but  he  is 
not  required  to  image  the  reaUties  with  which  he  deals.  It  is 
enough  for  the  purposes  of  adaptation  that  he  should  feel  the 
meaning  of  the  results.  So  again,  in  higher  mathematics,  as  in 
algebra,  geometry  and  trigonometry,  the  individual  makes  use 
of  symbolic  processes  which  enable  him  to  determine  the  proper 
response  to  be  made  to  a  situation,  whereas  it  would  be  practi- 
cally and  often  absolutely  impossible  for  him  to  decide  what 
should  be  done  in  the  situation  if  he  did  not  possess  these  means 
of  generalizing  experience  and  using  symbols  to  denote  it,  and  the 
consequences  of  readjusting  quantitative  relations  and  manipu- 


70  MENTAL  i)K\i:i.()rMi;\  r  and  education 

laling  forces.  These  symbols  can  be  combined  and  the  effects 
traced  exactly  as  could  be  the  quantities  themselves  which  they 
denote.  Thus  through  the  use  of  symbols  the  individual  can 
trace  the  relations  of  objects  and  forces  and  the  outcome  of 
combining  them  or  operating  upon  them  in  any  way  when  he 
could  not  do  so  if  he  had  to  deal  directly  with  the  realities. 
So  one  who  is  capable  of  generalizing  experience  and  denoting 
it  by  symbols  and  then  operating  with  the  symbols  can  adapt 
himself  in  a  well-nigh  infinitely  higher  degree  to  the  world  in 
which  he  Hves  than  one  who  is  incapable  of  such  generalization 
and  symbolization  by  means  of  words  or  figures  or  designs  of  a 
similar  character. 

A  three-months-old  child  can  neither  understand  language  nor 
use  it  to  express  experience.  He  cannot  understand  or  employ 
Develop-  figures  to  denote  quantities  or  their  relations.  To- 
ment  of         ward  the  end  of  the  first  year  he  begins  dimly  to 

symbolizing  t  i 

activities  Understand  a  few  words  that  relate  very  directly  to 
"^  *  ®  '^  objects  with  which  he  comes  in  vital  contact  in  his 
daily  life,  and  activities  connected  with  the  gaining  of  food  or 
pleasure,  or  the  avoidance  of  pain.  At  the  end  of  the  ninth 
month  he  is  about  on  a  par,  roughly  speaking,  with  a  collie  dog 
in  regard  to  the  understanding  of  language.  He  acts  in  response 
to  cues  as  the  dog  does,  principally  cues  derived  from  gesture, 
intonation  and  the  Hke.  And  he  expresses  himself  principally 
through  intonation,  gesticulation  and  so  on.  By  the  eighteenth 
month  he  normally  employs  words  to  denote  concrete  experience ; 
but  he  uses  only  single  words  and  these  are  as  a  rule  mutilated. 
He  cannot  connect  two  words  together  in  a  sentence ;  he  does 
not  appear  to  distinguish  objects  from  their  actions  or  their 
quaHties  or  their  special  relations.  At  this  age  he  conceives 
situations  and  reacts  upon  them  as  wholes.  When  he  sees  his 
dog  jump  over  a  chair  he  calls  out  in  his  baby  talk,  "Doggie !" 
and  possibly  though  not  probably,  —  "Jump!"     He  does  not 


HIGHER   FORMS   OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  71 

and  probably  cannot  conceive  the  dog  as  an  object  apart  from 
his  jumping  or  barking  and  the  Uke.  When  the  child  is  eighteen 
months  old  the  word  ''dog"  in  his  speech  does  not  perform 
nominal  function,  strictly  speaking,  because  the  object  is  not 
felt  as  a  thing  apart  from  its  actions  or  aspects.  But  as  he 
develops,  the  idea  of  the  dog  as  an  entity  will  gradually  acquire 
independence  of  any  particular  aspect  or  activity  or  relation  of 
the  dog ;  and  he  can  detach  the  idea  from  any  particular  activity, 
relation  or  quality.  Thus,  speaking  grammatically,  the  word 
"dog"  comes  in  due  course  to  perform  nominal  function  in- 
dependent of  verbal  or  qualitative  function.  What  is  true 
regarding  the  development  of  the  word  "dog"  as  a  symbol  of 
experience  is  equally  true  of  every  word  which  denotes  an  object 
of  any  kind.  It  is  true  in  principle  also  of  any  word  which  denotes 
an  action,  a  quality  or  a  relation. 

It  can  be  seen,  then,  how  far  the  twenty-year-old  individual 
has  gone  beyond  the  collie  dog,   whose  intellectual  processes 
are   confined   very   closely  if  not  absolutely   to   the  ^j^^  abmty 
situations  in  which  the  processes  were  established,   of  the 
One  may  not  dogmatize,  of  course,  upon  what  passes  to  develop 
in  the  mind  of  a  collie  dog,  but  so  far  as  can  be  told  *'"®®  '**®"^ 
from  its  behavior,  it  cannot  generalize  its  experiences  into  con- 
cepts and  give  these  concepts  freedom  to   play  a  role  in  any 
situations   not   exactly   like   those  in   which   the   concept   was 
developed.     One  reason  the  collie  remains  a  dog  is  because  it 
cannot,  unless  in  a  very  imperfect  manner,  generalize  its  ex- 
perience with  objects  and  detach  the  generalizations  from  the 
particular  situations  in  which  the  objects  were  responded  to, 
and  so  it  cannot  react  to  objects  except  in  the  manner  in  which 
they  have  already  been  reacted  to,  except  as  it  may  by  chance 
develop  a  new  adaptation.     But  because  of  the  ability  which 
the  twenty-year-old  human  being  possesses  to  detach  general- 
izations from  the  particular  situations  in  which  he  is  placed  at 


72      MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

the  moment,  he  can  preadjust  himself  to  situations,  he  can 
construct  new  situations  in  consciousness,  and  in  imagination 
he  can  react  upon  them  and  note  what  happens.  So  he  can 
determine  how  he  should  act  before  he  actually  does  act  and  thus 
he  can  save  himself  from  much  blundering. 

The  capacity  to  foresee  the  consequences  of  responses  gives 
a  human  being  incalculable  advantage  over  the  creatures  that 
The  abUity  cannot  sce  beyond  the  particular  experiences  which 
to  foresee  ^Y^cy  have  had.  To  cite  one  instance  of  the  capacity 
sequences  to  foresee  consequcnces,  mention  may  be  made  of 
means  to  what  is  taking  place  in  Paris  at  the  time  of  this 
ends  writing.     The  President  of  the  United  States  is  in 

Paris  attending  the  Peace  Conference.  He  is  helping  to  decide 
what  penalties  should  be  imposed  upon  Germany  and  what 
relations  should  be  established  between  Germany  and  the 
other  nations  of  the  world.  He  has  in  view  the  welfare  of 
America  as  well  as  other  nations  a  hundred  and  even  a  thousand 
years  from  now.  He  is  not  acting  with  regard  to  the  welfare 
of  America  this  year ;  this  would  be  of  slight  importance.  The 
welfare  of  the  nation  in  the  future  is  the  vital  matter.  When 
any  measure  is  being  cpnsidered,  President  Wilson's  mind  can 
construct  'the  situations  which  will  arise  in  the  future  if  the 
measure  should  be  put  into  effect.  He  can  foresee  the  responses 
of  the  people  for  a  thousand  years  to  this  measure  and  so  he  can 
determine  whether  the  welfare  of  the  country  would  or  would 
not  be  promoted  by  it.  Thus  while  he  is  a  thousand  years 
removed  from  those  who  will  be  affected  by  his  decisions,  he  can 
nevertheless  determine  what  attitude  he  should  assume  toward 
every  measure  proposed. 

In  order  that  the  significance  of  this  capacity  may  be  im- 
pressed, let  it  be  supposed  that  King  Pharaoh  were  attending  the 
Peace  Conference  and  he  were  asked  to  consider  whether  a 
proposal  should  or  should  not  be  accepted.     What  would  take 


HIGHER   lORMS   OF  ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITY  73 

place  ill  Ills  consciousness?  An  immediate  response  delermined 
by  the  outcome  of  an  experience  in  the  past  with  an  identical 
measure.  If  it  varied  slightly  from  proposals  with  which  he 
had  had  experience  he  would  act  as  he  had  in  the  past  without 
being  able  to  distinguish  the  variations  which  should  modify  his 
conduct.  But  the  chief  distinction  between  his  action  and  the 
action  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  would  be  King 
Pharaoh's  incapacity  to  conceive  of  the  consequences  of  the 
proposed  measure  because  he  could  not  image  the  consequences. 
He  could  not  picture  to  himself  what  would  happen  in  America 
a  thousand  years  from  now  if  certain  proposals  were  accepted, 
since  he  could  not  form  generalizations  or  principles  which  he 
could  apply  in  situations  in  which  the  conditions  are  somewhat 
different  from  those  in  which  his  experiences  occurred.  A  crea- 
ture cannot  foresee  consequences  if  it  cannot  generalize  present 
experiences  and  detach  the  generalizations  from  the  situations  in 
which  they  were  gained. 

It  is,  of  course,  essential  when  generalizations  or  concepts  are 
freed  from  the  particular  situations  in  which  they  were  experi- 
enced that  they  be  held  in  control  by  the  ends  which  „ 

1        •     T    •  1      1     1  •  •  '  ^  '  Free  con- 

the   mdividual   has  m   view.     President  Wilson,    to  cepts  must 
illustrate,  can  marshal  all  his  concepts  of  the  life  of  troiied'by 
a  nation  under  varying  conditions  so  that  they  will  be  the  ends  to 

...         be  attained 

brought  to  bear  upon  the  particular  subjects  which 
he  is  considering.  Shall  the  Monroe  Doctrine  be  retained? 
The  Monroe  Doctrine  involves  a  large  number  of  conceptions 
pertaining  to  the  relations  of  nations  and  their  well-being.  The 
conditions  in  the  world  will  be  changed  by  the  League  of  Nations, 
if  adopted.  Does  the  welfare  of  the  American  people  require 
that  under  the  new  conditions  in  the  world  the  Monroe  Doctrine 
should  be  upheld?  President  Wilson,  in  answering  this  ques- 
tion, must  be  able  to  command  all  his  concepts  and  make  them 
play  a  role  in  relation  to  the  definite  problem  he  is  trying  to 


74      MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

solve,  lie  has  his  ends  to  attain  and  he  must  be  able  to  bring 
his  concepts  into  any  pattern  he  wishes  in  order  to  throw  light 
upon  his  problem.  They  must  be  responsive  to  his  needs,  that 
is  to  say;  they  must  be  mobile  and  plastic,  but  they  must*not 
be  lawless  or  chaotic  or  ungovernable.  If  they  do  become  head- 
strong or  ungovernable  the  individual  will,  of  course,  be  alienated 
from  his  environment.  It  sometimes  happens  under  conditions 
of  intoxication  or  mental  disease  that  one's  generalizations  cease 
to  be  law-abiding,  which  means  that  they  do  not  conform  to  the 
constitution  of  the  world  of  realities  to  which  they  relate.  They 
cannot  be  utilized  with  reference  to  ends  to  be  attained  and  so 
they  do  not  serve  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  individual  to  fore- 
see the  consequences  of  his  actions  and  govern  them  accord- 
ingly. Freedom,  plasticity,  mobility  of  ideas  under  the  control 
of  law  and  order  and  exercised  always  with  reference  to  ends  to  be 
attained  are  the  essential  requisites  for  efficiency  in  adaptation, 
and  this  is  the  situation  which  develops  gradually  in  all  normal 
human  minds  under  usual  conditions. 

The  principle  to  be  impressed  here  is  that  the  most  important 
distinction  between  the  primitive  and  the  higher  types  of  in- 
Th  most  telligence  lies  in  the  possibility  of  the  latter  gen- 
important  eralizing  experience  and  then  freely  using  the  gener- 
between  the  alizations  in  new  situations  in  order  to  accomplish 
primitive        desirable  ends.     To  illustrate  the  principle  with  an 

and  mgher       ^  *  *  .       , 

types  of  instance :  A  horse  was  fed  corn  on  the  ear  in  its 
mteUigence    j^j^j^ggj.      ji^^  g^j.  fgi|  q^  ^^q  Stable  floor,  which  was 

covered  with  straw.  The  horse  attempted  to  eat  the  corn  where 
the  ear  fell  and  of  course  lost  much  of  it.  If  the  horse  possessed 
the  faculty  of  generalizing  experience  it  would  have  taken  the 
ear  in  its  mouth,  put  it  in  the  manger,  and  eaten  it  there  where 
not  a  kernel  would  have  been  lost.  If  a  four-year-old  child 
were  placed  in  a  similar  situation  he  would  have  been  able  to 
utilize   generalizations   of   his   past   experience   and    he  would 


HIGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  75 

have  seen  that  he  would  be  better  off  if  he  would  place  his  food 
where  none  of  it  would  be  lost.  This  simple  instance  illustrates 
why  it  is  impossible  for  the  horse  or  any  other  species  of  animal 
below  man  to  progress  in  its  development  beyond  the  specific 
adjustments  it  has  actually  been  taught  or  has  discovered  by 
the  method  of  trial-and-success,  whereas  the  normal  human 
being  by  the  age  of  two  and  increasingly  thereafter  uses  what  he 
has  been  taught  or  what  he  has  discovered  by  the  method  of  trial- 
and-success  to  secure  adjustment  to  situations  with  which  he  has 
had  no  trial-and-success  experience  and  concerning  which  he 
has  not  been  taught. 

Another  illustration  will  impress  the  distinction  in  question 
here.  In  the  examination  of  King  Pharaoh,  already  referred  to, 
this  problem  was  set:  ''King,  suppose  you  pay  five  cents  for 
fifteen  apples,  how  much  would  you  have  to  pay  for  eight 
apples?"  Under  the  guidance  of  his  trainer  King  performed 
the  processes  accurately,  but  when  his  trainer  was  gone  he 
did  not  show  the  slightest  comprehension  of  the  problem.  It  is 
inconceivable  that  he  could  apply  the  general  principles  involved 
to  the  particular  quantities  and  relations  presented  in  this  prob- 
lem. A  normal  ten-year-old  child  could  readily  image  the 
quantities  and  relations,  even  though  he  had  never  encountered 
this  specific  problem  before.  But  he  had  dealt  with  situations 
involving  the  principles  of  relation  which  were  presented  in  this 
problem,  and  he  could  detach  these  principles  from  the  particular 
instances  from  which  they  were  derived  and  apply  them  to  the 
new  situation. 

Finally,  in  order  to  stress  another  of  the  characteristics  of 
human  intelligence,  suppose  King  had  been  asked  to  prove  that 
the   sum  of   the  interior  angles  of  a   triangle  were    ,    ,    . 

°  *=>  Analysis 

equal  to  two  right  angles.  Even  Maurice  Maeterlinck  and 
would  probably  agree  that  the  most  highly  educated  ^^° 
horse  could  not  solve  this  problem.     And  why?     First,  because 


76  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

he  would  react  to  the  situation  as  a  whole,  if  he  reacted  at  all, 
which  is  very  unlikely.  If  he  had  been  taught  when  geometric 
figures  were  placed  on  the  board  to  paw  or  to  respond  in  some 
other  way,  he  would  respond  in  that  way ;  he  would  not  analyze 
the  particular  problem  placed  before  him  and  note  what  should 
be  done  with  respect  to  each  element  thereof.  Even  if  he  could 
have  performed  this  analytic  process  he  could  not  have  taken 
the  next  step  in  integrating  or  synthesizing  the  elementary 
responses  appropriate  to  each  element.  He  does  a  few  things  in 
a  relatively  simple  environment,  so  for  him  it  has  been  sufficient 
that,  given  a  situation,  he  should  immediately  respond  to  it  as  a 
whole.  His  mind  has  not  been  fashioned  so  that  it  can  differen- 
tiate factors,  note  the  meaning  of  each  and  then  integrate  all 
the  factors  in  a  situation  so  as  to  be  governed  by  their  significance 
when  operating  together.  But  this  is  precisely  the  characteristic 
of  the  normal  human  mind,  which  begins  to  be  manifested  in  a 
simple  way  by  the  second  year ;  and  the  ability  and  the  activity 
continually  increase  to  full  maturity. 


CHAPTER   V 

EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES :   VOCAL,  FEATURAL, 
POSTURAL,  GESTURAL 

During  the  first  days  of  life  the  child's  only  vocal  expres- 
sion is  a  squall.     This  is  accompanied  usually  by  contortion 
of  the  features,  the  mouth  especially,  and  agitation  indefinite- 
of  the  arms  and  the  legs.     His  caretakers  interpret  °®ss  of 

,  11.  .      ^.         the  first 

these  expressions  to  denote  that  he  is  experiencing  efforts  at 
discomfort  of  some  sort,  —  either  hunger  or  cold  "P^'^^sion 
or  coHcky  pains  or  too  tight  clothing ;  but  they  cannot  tell  pre- 
cisely what  is  the  source  of  his  trouble.  Even  the  mother, 
whose  attention  to  the  child's  expressions  is  especially  keen, 
cannot  tell  from  any  one  or  all  of  his  expressions  what  is  the 
cause  of  his  distress.  If  he  is  crying  and  he  has  recently  taken 
food,  the  caretakers  conclude  that  his  rations  have  not  agreed 
with  him,  and  so  on ;  but  they  examine  one  thing  after  another 
to  see  if  they  can  discover  what  is  disturbing  him.  They  do  not 
have  to  proceed  so  blindly  by  the  time  the  child  is  six  months 
of  age,  for  when  he  cries  then  it  is  possible  to  locate  pretty 
definitely  the  cause  of  his  disquietude.  The  mother  can  tell 
from  the  peculiar  quality  of  the  vocal  timbre  of  the  cry  whether 
the  child  needs  food  or  desires  her  companionship  or  has  been 
frightened,  or  is  suffering  from  cold  or  internal  or  external  pain. 
She  can  tell  when  he  has  been  made  angry  by  a  brother  or  sister 
or  when  his  caretaker  has  taken  his  food  away  from  him  before 
he  is  satiated.  That  is,  the  original  squall,  expressive  of  dis- 
comfort but  without  indicating  the  particular  cause  thereof, 
becomes  differentiated  by  the  sixth  month  so  that  each  variety 
of  distress  is  revealed  in  characteristic  vocal  timbre. 

77 


78  MINI  Al.    I)i:\  Kl.Ol'MKNT   AND    EDUCATION 

As  tlK-  child  develops,  his  relations  to  the  world  about  him  and 
especially  the  world  of  persons  become  very  complex.  His 
original  discomfort  becomes  differentiated  into  many  varieties 
of  discomfort,  pain  and  distress.  The  joy  which  he  experiences 
in  his  third  or  fourth  month  becomes  enriched  according  to  the 
extent  of  liis  nlations  with  his  jjliysical  and  his  social  environ- 
ments. How  does  he  accjuire  the  elaborate  and  com])licated 
machinery  necessary  to  express  adequately  his  diflfercntiated 
feelings  and  attitudes?  Fortunately  he  does  not  have  to  learn 
all  the  technique  of  expression  required  to  portray  these  feel- 
ings and  attitudes.  He  comes  among  us  equipped 
made  with  rcady-made  means  of  revealing  all  his  funda- 

means  of        niental  experiences.     The  moment  he  feels  joy,  for 

expression       ^  '  ^  .     . 

instance,  the  mechanism  needed  to  express  it  is  pre- 
pared to  function.  So  when  he  lirst  experiences  anger  he  can 
reveal  it  adequately  though  he  has  never  seen  an  angry  per- 
son, and  of  course  has  never  taken  lessons  relating  to  ways  and 
means  of  expressing  anger.  Nature  has  given  him  mobile 
features  and  a  mobile  body  and  particularly  a  responsive  vocal 
system,  which  have  all  been  tuned  for  him  so  that  he  can  express 
his  fundamental  feelings.  On  account  of  this  responsiveness 
of  his  vocal,  featural  and  bodily  members,  he  has  a  tremendous 
advantage  over  any  other  creature  in  his  facilities  for  reveal- 
ing his  experiences. 

It  is  doubtless  appreciated  by  everyone  that  the  child's  voice, 
face  and  arms  and  hands  are  much  more  mobile  than  those 
of  any  of  the  animals,  and  so  he  can  reveal  a  much  larger  range 
and  variety  of  experiences  than  can  the  dog,  the  monkey 
or  any  of  the  lower  creatures.  One  can  tell  from  a  dog's  bark 
whether  he  is  frightened,  or  is  lonely  at  night,  or  is  angry  at  a 
human  being  or  at  another  dog.  or  has  been  injured,  or  is  suffer- 
ing from  hunger,  or  desires  to  accompany  his  master  on  his 
journeys,  or  wishes  to  be  let  into  his  house  or  let  out  of  it,  or  is 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  79 

joyful  upon  Ihe  return  of  his  master  or  is  grieving  for  the  loss 
of  him.  Hut  tliis  is  about  as  far  as  he  can  go  in  divulging  his 
feelings  and  his  attitudes  through  vocal  expression,  —  or  any- 
other  mode  of  expression  for  that  matter.  If  a  dog  feels  ad- 
miration or  regard  or  contempt  or  disgust  or  envy  or  jealousy  and 
the  like  for  either  his  dog  or  liis  human  associates  it  is  im- 
possible to  detect  his  feeling  in  his  expression.  But  a  practiced 
ear  can  readily  detect  any  or  all  of  these  evaluations  and 
attitudes  and  many  others  in  the  vocal  responses  of  a  typical 
ten-year-old  child ;  and  he  can  detect  them  more  clearly 
still  in  the  vocal  expressions  of  an  adolescent  or  a  mature 
person. 

Darwin's  view  is  still  held  by  many  persons,  —  that  all  the 
child's  modes  of  expression  are  the  remains  of  activities  which 
once  were  practiced  by  man  or  the  animals  in  self-  Darwin's 
defense.     In   the   expression   of  anger,    for  instance,  view  of 

1        r         •        1         1       1       1  1  11  *^®  origin 

the  nst  IS  clenched,  the  teeth  are  bared  and  set,  the  of 
brow  is  knit,  and  the  entire  organism  assumes  an  at-  ^^P^'^ssion 
titude  favoring  the  concentration  of  all  the  individual's  energy 
of  resistance  against  or  aggression  upon  the  object  which  has 
aroused  the  anger.  This  emotion  is  awakened  in  the  child  only 
when  he  is  thwarted  in  attaining  what  he  desires,  or  when  his 
pleasures  have  been  interfered  with  or  pain  has  been  inflicted 
upon  him.  The  function  of  anger  in  self-preservation  is  to 
remove  or  destroy  the  object  which  has  interrupted  the  in- 
dividual's enjoyment  or  which  has  threatened  his  well-being. 
The  various  members  of  the  organism  —  teeth,  nails,  fists, 
for  instance  —  which  can  be  used  to  do  violence  to  the  enemy 
are  brought  into  positions  in  which  they  can  be  used  to  greatest 
advantage.  But  in  the  evolution  of  the  human  species  this  type 
of  physical  reaction  upon  offenders  has  been  increasingly  re- 
strained until  now  it  has  largely  disappeared,  at  least  in  adult 
life. 


8o 


MENTAL   UEVELOPMEN'r   AND    EDUCA  1  ION 


sjtt*^ 


ksp 


VR'I 


FlRM^j  , 


HOPE 


Cor 


3U5r,E 


Sj 


c   \Col 


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\T<  /  SuBLiniTY 


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>ECR£ 


'DE.iTRucriv-f^ 


^"f. 


rofl? 


'Ca 


Ul".AT,On 


TALIMEMTIVENEsj 


■^^ 


(    ^^ 


y  5 


Fig.  7.  —  A  great  many  persons  believe  that  it  is  possible  to  make  out  one's  character 
by  examining  the  elevations  and  depressions  of  the  skull.  The  phrenologists  base  their 
theories  upon  the  doctrine  that  each  mental  faculty  is  located  in  a  certain  portion  of  the 
brain  as  shown  in  this  chart.     (See  exercise  14,  page  324.) 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  8i 

One  cannot  detect  the  expression  of  a  complex  emotion  like 
contempt,  scorn,  disgust  or  admiration  much  before  the  age  of 
ten.     It  is  probable  that  the  motor  accompaniments  of 
these  emotions  grow  out  of  reactions  to  taste  and  pretslonof 
smell  experiences.     An  object  of  disagreeable   taste  complex 

,       ,  emotions 

which  gets  into  the  mouth  will  arouse  ejective  re- 
sponses, and  the  reactions  of  all  the  mechanisms  concerned 
will  be  such  as  are  necessary  to  spit  out  the  offending  object. 
Often  the  eyes  are  closed  as  though  shutting  out  the  sight  of 
the  disagreeable  thing.  Also,  in  reacting  upon  an  object  that 
is  offensive  to  smell,  the  child  automatically  withdraws  the 
head,  closes  or  reduces  the  openings  to  the  nostrils  and  expires. 
These  reactions  occur  as  early  as  the  twelfth  month,  but  they 
increase  in  frequency  and  intensity  up  to  the  teens.  These 
responses  to  offensive  tastes  and  smells  serve  as  the  basis  for  the 
motor  reactions  in  disgust,  repugnance,  contempt  and  all  ab- 
horrent attitudes  toward  persons.  The  expression  for  contempt, 
scorn  and  disdain  is  not  so  much  of  the  nature  of  ejecting  or  re- 
moving the  disagreeable  person  as  of  avoiding  him  or  letting 
him  alone.  Disgust  produces  a  more  positive  and  dynamic  re- 
action ;  an  individual  is  more  likely  to  assume  an  aggressive 
attitude  when  he  feels  disgust  than  when  he  feels  contempt  or 
scorn  or  disdain  for  an  individual.  A  person  who  awakens 
disgust  may  actually  be  offensive  to  the  senses  of  the  one  who 
is  reacting  against  him ;  but  a  person  who  arouses  contempt 
is  apt  to  be  offensive  to  the  intellect  or  the  moral  sense,  and  so 
the  expression  is  more  reserved  in  the  case  of  the  latter  than  of 
the  former. 

Contrasted  with  taste  and  smell  experiences  which  are  dis- 
agreeable are  those  which  are  agreeable.  In  response  to  sweet 
tastes  the  motor  reactions  of  the  mouth  especially  are  such  as  are 
necessary  to  secure  and  retain  the  object  which  affords  the 
pleasurable  sensations.      In   the   reactions   upon   pleasant   odors 


82 


MENTAL  DE\ELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


Wentd/Order 


Order 


fVy// 


n7ounh 


8ed5on 
Pd5b/on 


Fig.  8.  —  Some  jieople  believe  it  is  possible  to  "read  one's  character"  by  examining  the 
various  "mounts"  and  lines  of  the  hand  and  the  relative  lengths  and  thicknesses  of  the 
joints  of  the  fingers.     (See  exercise  15,  page  324.) 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  83 

and  fragrances  the  individual  tries  to  bring  the  olfactory  organ 
close  to  the  object  yielding  the  odors.  In  the  course  of  de- 
velopment one  sees  the  expression  of  emotions  of  approval  which 
are  derived  from  the  expression  for  agreeable  tastes  and  smells. 
The  expressions  of  affection — feeUngs  denoted  by  sweet,  lovely, 
delightful  and  so  on  —  have  reference  to  taste  and  odor  expe- 
riences. The  expression  of  admiration  is  less  dynamic  than  the 
expression  of  affection.  But  the  attitude  of  the  individual 
in  both  cases  is  positive ;  he  would  like  to  secure  and  enjoy  the 
person  who  arouses  his  affection  and  admiration. 

There  are  a  few  complex  emotional  attitudes  which  appear 
in  the  course  of  development  the  expression  for  which  cannot 
be  traced  to  the  motor  reactions  to  tastes  and  smells.  Take 
for  illustration  such  an  emotion  as  pride  and  its  contrasting  emo- 
tion, humiliation.  In  the  expression  of  pride  the  eyes  and  head 
are  inclined  upward,  and  indeed  the  whole  body  appears  to  be 
extended  upward,  while  in  humiliation  just  the  opposite  atti- 
tude is  assumed.  The  expression  of  pride  is  seen  earlier  by 
several  years  than  the  expression  of  humiliation,  and  it  seems 
to  arise  from  the  child's  response  to  the  physical  objects  with 
which  he  comes  in  contact.  The  young  child  is  indift'erent  to 
the  effect  of  soil  upon  his  person ;  he  has  no  aversion  to  dirt ; 
but  somewhere  between  his  eighth  and  his  twelfth  birthday  he 
begins  to  show  an  abhorrence  of  dirt.  As  the  emotion  of  ab- 
horrence becomes  strengthened,  the  individual  seems  to  hft 
his  bodily  members  up  from  the  dirt,  and  upon  this  reaction  is 
developed  the  general  expression  of  pride.  It  is  at  first  an  atti- 
tude of  rising  above  soil  and  dirt,  and  in  due  course  the  in- 
dividual feels  he  has  risen  above  his  fellows  in  intelligence,  in 
looks,  in  clothes,  in  material  possessions  and  so  on.  Whatever 
the  individual  feels  he  possesses  in  superior  measure  to  his 
fellows  he  automatically  manifests  by  appearing  to  have  a  posi- 
tion above  them  so  that  he  is  looking  down  on  them. 


84  MENTAL    DE\'ELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

It  is  the  aim  in  this  cha[)tcr  to  deal  mainly  with  the  motor 
accompaniments  of  emotion  ;  but  to  reenforce  the  view  that  the 
Organic  purpose  of  all  motor  reaction  to  an  emotion  is  to 
accompani-     p^able   the   individual    to   adjust    himself   advanta- 

ments  of  ■' 

emotion  geously  to  the  situations  arousing  the  emotion,  it  may 
motor  '->^'  pointed  out   that  the  physiological  concomitants 

reactions  qJ  emotion  apparently  serve  to  enable  the  organism 
to  utilize  its  energies  to  the  fullest  extent  in  supporting  the  motor 
reaction.  It  is  doubtless  famihar  to  every  reader  that  strong 
emotion,  especially  fear  or  anger,  profoundly  affects  vital  func- 
tion. For  instance,  fright  delays  the  digestion  of  a  meal ;  and 
one  who  is  looking  forward  to  a  terrifying  experience  "loses 
his  appetite."  So  anger  arrests  digestion  and  exerts  other 
marked  organic  effects.  On  the  other  hand,  joy  and  especially 
the  anticipation  of  tasty  food  increase  the  activity  of  the  entire 
alimentary  system,  —  the  secretory,  motile  and  assimilative 
processes.  Recent  investigation,  especially  by  Cannon  and 
Pawlow,  has  extended  our  knowledge  of  these  physiological 
effects  of  emotion.  In  fear  and  anger  especially,  the  blood  is 
withdrawn  from  the  alimentary  tract,  and  the  processes  of  di- 
gestion and  assimilation  are  temporarily  checked.  The  blood 
is  sent  in  comparatively  large  volume  to  the  heart,  the  muscles 
and  the  brain,  and  it  is  prepared  so  that  it  will  clot  quickly  if  the 
organism  is  wounded.  Respiration  and  heart  action  are  quick- 
ened. At  times  the  perspiratory  glands  become  active  and  sweat 
is  poured  out  on  the  skin.  The  liver  discharges  relatively  large 
quantities  of  sugar  into  the  blood  stream.  It  has  been  shown 
that  these  effects  are  produced  largely  by  the  action  of  the 
adrenal  glands  which  under  stimulation  of  the  emotions  of  fear 
and  anger  discharge  adrenalin  into  the  arteries.  This  serves  to 
check  certain  organic  processes  which  are  not  necessary  and  stim- 
ulate others  which  are  needed  for  self-defense  or  for  aggression. 
The  point  is  that  the  effect  of  the  adrenalin  is  to  prepare  the 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES 


8S 


organism  to  carry  out  effectively  the  motor  reactions  which  are 
automatically  set  a-going  by  the  emotions,  and  the  purpose  of 


Fig.  g.  —  Studies  in  the  expression  of  the  brow.     (See  exercise  i8,  page  324.) 

which  is  to  protect  the  organism  by  flight  or  combat  from  im- 
pending danger. 

While   the  phraseology  used  above  might  suggest   to  some 
readers  that  motor  responses  are  the  effect  of  emotions,  it  is  not 


86     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

the  intention  to  take  a  stand  on  the  question  as  to  whether 
emotions  are  the  causes,  the  effects  or  but  aspects  of  motor 
The  James-  reactions.  As  the  James-Lange  theory  is  ordinarily 
Lange  interpreted,    it    maintains    that    emotions    are    the 

product  of  motor  actions  and  bodily  attitudes ;  if 
one  did  not  assume  the  attitude  of  fear,  for  example,  he  would 
not  feel  the  emotion  of  fear.  For  our  purpose  it  really  makes 
no  difference  which  is  cause  and  which  is  effect,  or  whether  the 
emotion  and  the  motor  accompaniment  are  phases  of  a  unitary 
process.  We  are  concerned  solely  with  motor  reaction  as  a  reve- 
lation of  emotional  states,  and  even  though  an  emotion  should 
be  but  the  effect  of  motor  reaction,  nevertheless  the  individual 
experiences  the  emotion  and  he  seeks  to  adjust  himself  ap- 
propriately to  the  situation  in  view  of  which  the  emotion  has 
been  stimulated. 

To  return  to  the  development  of  cxpressional  activities  in 
the  child,  it  may  be  noted  that  when  a  seven-  or  eight-months- 
With  the  old  child  is  made  angry  his  body  becomes  rigid,  his 
^^'^^  fists  clenched,  his  lips  are  drawn  apart,  the  jaws  are 

expression  ^  r-        '  j 

is  intense  set,  the  brow  is  corrugated,  there  are  deep  furrows  in 
short  the  cheeks,  the  muscles  about  the  eyes  become  tense ; 

duration  [^  short,  the  entire  muscular  mechanism  becomes 
taut  so  that  all  the  energies  may  be  concentrated  upon  the  of- 
fender. Any  emotion,  experienced  by  a  child,  takes  full  posses- 
sion of  the  expressive  mechanism  by  which  it  is  revealed,  but 
it  quickly  passes.  With  the  approach  of  puberty  the  intensity 
of  expression  begins  to  decrease  and  it  continues  normally  to 
decrease  until  full  maturity  is  reached,  but  the  duration  of  any 
expression  is  increased.  When  a  five-year-old  boy  learns  that 
he  can  go  to  the  circus,  every  mobile  part  of  his  organism  gives 
expression  to  his  joy.  He  jumps  up  and  down,  waves  his  arms 
in  the  air,  chips  his  hands,  gives  way  to  hilarious  vocalization, 
and  all  the  features  are  swept  by  expressive  movements.     In 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES 


87 


a  comparatively  short  time,   however,   these  expressions  sub- 
side and  others  take  their  place ;    the  child  slips  rapidly  from 


Fig.  10.  —  Studies  in  the  exprcssioii  of  tlu  lips.     (See  exercise  18,  page  324  ) 

one  series  of  expressions  into  another  series.  But  when  a  boy 
of  fifteen  learns  that  he  may  go  to  the  circus  his  pleasure  will 
be   revealed   in   rather   modulated   vocal   expressions   as   com- 


88  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

pared  with  those  of  the  live-year-okl.  He  will  not  jump  up 
and  down  and  wave  his  arms  or  clap  his  hands.  His  features 
will  reveal  the  pleasure  he  feels  but  not  so  intensely  as  in  the 
case  of  the  tive-year-old.  An  observer  who  was  unfamiliar 
with  the  fact  that  at  puberty  the  expression  of  any  emotion 
tends  to  become  subdued  and  who  should  observe  these  two 
boys  would  say  that  the  five-year-old  was  anticipating  very 
much  more  pleasure  in  going  to  the  circus  than  the  fifteen-year- 
old.  But  this  may  not  be  the  case.  The  pleasure  of  the  fif- 
teen-year-old may  continue  without  intermission  from  the  time 
he  learns  that  he  can  go  to  the  circus  until  his  desire  is  realized. 
But  the  pleasure  of  anticipation  will  be  intermittent  with  the 
five-year-old.  It  will  come  and  go ;  it  will  be  intense  while  it 
lasts,  but  it  will  not  be  enduring. 

Now  compare  the  fifteen-year-old  with  the  man  twenty-five 
years  old ;  it  will  be  found  that  in  the  case  of  the  latter  the 
With  the  expression  of  pleasure  is  more  restrained  than  it  is 
adult  ^jj.}^    ^i^Q    former.     The    pleasure    does    not    sweep 

expression  ,  ^  ,  , 

is  subdued,  through  the  whole  organism  and  engulf  it  as  is  the 
more  '^  ^^^^  ^^'^^h  the  five-year-old ;  and  yet  the  man  will 
enduring       probably  anticipate  just  as  much  "fun"  as  the  young 

than  in  the      f         .''.  ,.  xii,  i  i 

eariier  boy  in  going  to  the  Circus.     Indeed,  the  pleasure  he 

^^^^^  anticipates  is  likely  to  be  more  varied  and  richer  in 

content  than  that  of  the  youth,  but  the  expression  of  it  is  kept 
under  control. 

The  principle  applies  to  the  expression  of  all  the  fundamental 
emotions.  When  the  four-year-old  is  angered  by  a  playmate 
his  emotion  will  be  expressed  by  intense  action  of  voice,  fea- 
tures, biceps,  fists,  feet  and  bodily  attitudes,  not  to  speak  of 
the  effects  on  vital  function  —  with  which  we  will  not  be  con- 
cerned here.  But  one  rarely  sees  an  eighteen-year-old  indi- 
vidual who  is  engulfed  by  anger  to  such  an  extent  as  this. 
However,  the    anger  of    the   five-year-old    soon    passes ;    in    a 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  89 

moment  it  may  be  replaced  by  expressions  of  friendliness.  The 
emotion  will  leave  no  permanent  set  on  the  expressive  mechanism  ; 
the  scenes  are  continually  shifted  at  that  age.  But  it  is  differ- 
ent at  eighteen.  When  the  adolescent  is  angered  the  angry 
expression  will  not  be  quickly  dissipated.  The  hard,  set  lines 
on  the  features,  the  harsh  vocal  timbre,  the  rigid  attitude  of  the 
body  may  remain  for  hours  after  the  episode  which  aroused 
the  anger  has  been  closed.  At  this  age  laughter  and  joyous 
expression  do  not  replace  anger  quickly  as  they  usually  do  in 
earlier  years.  When  any  emotion  takes  possession  of  the  ex- 
pressive mechanism  of  the  adolescent,  it  is  not  easily  dislodged. 
The  principle  is  even  more  clearly  illustrated  when  a  mature 
person  is  made  angry ;  the  expression  may  be  very  subtle ; 
it  may  take  a  practiced  ear  to  detect  it  in  the  voice  and  a  keen 
eye  to  detect  it  in  the  features  and  the  bodily  attitudes.  But  the 
individual  may  retain  the  attitude  of  anger  undiminished  for 
days  at  a  time.  The  expression  is  likely  to  become  fixed  and 
gradually  to  settle  into  an  attitude  of  hatred  of  the  person  who 
has  incited  the  anger. 

The  principle  holds  for  fear,  affection,  jealousy  and  the  like ; 
—  the  younger  the  child,  the  more  intense  and  violent  but  the 
briefer  the  continuance  of  the  expression,  while  in  maturity 
the  expression  of  all  emotion  is  subdued,  but  the  attitudes  in- 
duced by  the  emotions  are  comparatively  long-continued.  We 
have  recently  had  a  marked  illustration  of  the  principle.  When 
the  armistice  was  signed  which  brought  the  World  War  to  a  close, 
people  of  all  ages  gave  themselves  for  many  hours  to  celebrat- 
ing the  event.  But  the  hilarious  and  conspicuous  celebrants 
were  for  the  most  part  in  the  period  of  childhood  and  youth. 
Mature  men  and  women  undoubtedly  felt  greater  joy  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  war  than  did  young  people,  and  their  joy  was 
more  enduring;  but  they  were  less  demonstrative  in  their  ex- 
pression  of   their   pleasure.     In   the   universities   the   students 


90  MENTAL  DEVKLOPMEXT   AND   EDUCATION 

gave  free  rein  to  their  emotions  and  indulged  in  shouting,  sing- 
ing, waving  banners  and  hats,  parading,  throwing  confetti  and 
the  Hke,  while  the  members  of  the  faculties  appeared  in  contrast 
not  to  be  deeply  affected.  They  gathered  together  groups  of 
students  and  others  to  impress  upon  them  the  significance  of 
the  e\ent  which  they  were  celebrating,  or  they  spent  their 
time  quietly  witnessing  the  performances  of  those  who  were  un- 
restrained in  the  expression  of  their  joy.  But  within  a  few 
days  the  students  had  apparently  forgotten  the  event  and  were 
laying  plans  for  athletic  competitions  and  other  forms  of  stu- 
dent activity.  But  the  members  of  the  faculties  were  for 
weeks  after  the  celebration  nearly  as  expressive  of  their  pleas- 
ure at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  as  they  were  on  the  day  on 
which  the  armistice  was  signed. 

Why  should  the  expression  of  an  emotion  become  subdued 
as  development  proceeds  even  when  the  emotion  is  felt  more 
Why  does  deeply  in  the  later  than  in  the  earlier  years  ?  The 
become'""  explanation  is  found  in  the  development  of  inhibition, 
subdued  The  mature  individual  has  learned  from  experience 
develop-  that  it  will  prove  a  disadvantage  to  give  way  to 
™®°*'  any  emotion,  so  in  his  case  there  are  always  restraining 

forces  operating  to  prevent  any  expression  from  gaining  com- 
plete mastery  of  him.  And  when  the  habit  of  inhibition  be- 
comes established,  the  individual  cannot  give  way  completely 
to  his  feelings  of  joy,  even  on  such  an  occasion  as  the  signing 
of  the  armistice.  The  attitude  of  moderation  or  restraint  has 
become  so  settled  in  him  that  it  is  disturbing  to  him  to  express 
himself  as  the  child  does.  A  mature  person  does  not  feel  at 
ease  in  shouting,  tossing  his  hat  into  the  air,  jumping  up  and 
down,  waving  his  arms,  running  hither  and  thither  on  the  streets 
^vith  his  companions,  climbing  on  automobiles  and  saluting 
passers-by  and  so  on.  He  has  been  building  up  restraints 
against  such  expressions  because  ordinarily  they  would  be  a 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  91 

handicap  to  him  in  life,  and  he  cannot  now  revert  to  the  abandon 
of  his  childhood  or  youth  even  when  it  would  be  an  advan- 
tage to  him  to  be  able  to  do  so.  The  principle  is  illustrated 
when  adults  attend  picnics  and  try  to  imitate  the  freedom  of 
adolescents.  One  can  see  that  it  requires  an  effort  to  break 
through  the  barriers  which  have  been  erected  along  the  paths 
of  emotional  expression ;  the  typical  adult  cannot  act  as  spon- 
taneously as  a  child  no  matter  how  much  he  may  try  so  to  do. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  girls  and  women 
preserve  their  original  freedom  and  richness  of  emotional  ex- 
pression   more    fully    than    do    boys    and    men.     A 

,  •  r  1     1      iM  'J  Women 

woman  s  voice,  features,  and  bodily  attitudes  are  are  more 
all  more  mobile  in  expressing  her  joys,  her  sorrows,  f^H^^^"^ 
her  fears,  her  anger,  her  jealousy,  her  hatred  and 
her  affection  than  is  the  case  with  the  typical  man  of  the  same 
age.  This  may  be  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  convention  re- 
quires a  man  to  be  more  subdued  and  restrained  than  a  woman 
in  emotional  expression.  He  may  not  weep  when  he  is  grieved ; 
neither  may  he  laugh  as  merrily  when  he  is  pleased  or  be  so 
demonstrative  when  he  is  very  fond  of  a  companion  as  the 
woman  may  be.  But  there  are  undoubtedly  native  differences 
between  men  and  women  in  respect  to  expression.  We  have 
seen  in  a  previous  chapter  that  reflection  and  especially  fore- 
sightedness  act  as  inhibitory  forces  and  so  lead  to  a  conservative 
and  repressive  attitude  in  regard  to  emotiona.1  expression.  The 
most  reflective  individual  is  as  a  rule  the  least  responsive  to 
emotional  experience ;  he  is  not  likely  to  let  himself  get  out  of 
hand ;  he  is  not  overcome  by  joy  or  anger  or  any  other  feeUng. 
It  is  as  though  he  were  constantly  trying  to  solve  problems  and 
so  were  resisting  any  influence  which  would  even  temporarily 
distract  his  attention.  This  will  explain  in  part  why  man  is 
less  mobile  in  expression  than  woman,  for  he  more  than  she 
has  borne  the  responsibihty  of  solving  problems.     He  has  had 


92  MENTAL   DE\  ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

to  kccj>  the  future  in  view  more  than  she  has,  and  this  has  made 
him  less  responsive  to  the  experiences  of  the  moment. 

The  reader  will  think  of  numerous  exceptions  to  the  rule  that 
woman  is  more  free  and  intense  —  more  like  the  child  —  in 
expression  than  is  man.  The  exceptions  are  undoubtedly 
increasing  in  frequency  according  as  women  are  assuming  re- 
sponsibilities which  require  forward-looking  and  problem-solv- 
ing. Women  who  are  engaged  in  intellectual  pursuits  and  es- 
pecially in  research  approach  the  masculine  type  in  regard  to 
subdued  expression.  A  woman  instructor  in  a  university  or  a 
woman  physician  or  lawyer  or  legislator  does  not  normally 
give  as  free  rein  to  her  emotions  as  does  the  typical  woman  one 
sees  in  everyday  social  life. 

We  should  not  leave  this  phase  of  our  subject  without  men- 
tioning the  fact  that  there  are  racial  differences  in  the  freedom 
and  intensity  of  expression.  The  Englishman  is  less 
differences  cxpressivc  than  the  Italian  or  the  Spaniard,  for  ex- 
'°  ample.     The  EngUshman  thinks  the  south  of  Europe 

expression  ^  ...  .... 

peoples  go  to  extremes  m  their  expression  of  joy,  fear, 
affection,  hatred  and  all  other  emotional  experiences,  while 
the  Italian  thinks  the  Englishman  is  rigid,  indifferent  and 
unfeeling.  But  Englishmen  are  freer  in  the  expression  of  their 
emotions  than  the  peoples  north  of  them.  The  Northmen 
are  constantly  facing  difficult  problems  in  maintaining  existence, 
so  they  must  always  be  thoughtful  in  preparing  to  meet  the 
rigors  of  nature.  This  develops  a  certain  reserve  in  their  ex- 
pression ;  they  cannot  abandon  themselves  to  their  emotions. 
But  it  is  different  with  the  Spaniard.  Nature  is  more  kind  to 
him.  He  can  laugh  and  sing  and  dance  and  forget  about  the 
days  ahead  because  his  i)r<)blems  will  not  be  as  serious  as  those 
of  the  Northmen.  He  does  not  need  so  much  food  or  clothing 
or  fuel  or  such  protection  against  hostile  forces  as  the  North- 
men do.     So  he  need  not  be  looking  forward  so  constantly  and 


EXPRESSIONAr,   ACTIVITllvS  93 

iiiliibi ting  tin-  iini)ulses  of  the  mumeiit ;  he  can  give  liiinself  up 
to  the  indulgence  of  his  emotions  and  he  will  not  sutler  heavy 
penalties  on  this  account. 

There  is  a  counteracting  tendency  v/hich  sometimes  leads 
races  that  have  to  struggle  hard  against  nature  to  abandon 
themselves  at  times  to  their  emotions.  Peoples  who  live  in 
northern  latitudes  have  occasions  when  they  "eat,  drink  and 
are  merry"  in  defiance  of  the  dangers  which  threaten  them, 
and  in  celebration  of  their  conquest  of  harsh  forces.  They  ac- 
quire fortitude  by  assuming  to  be  indifferent  to  the  problems  of 
existence  which  they  are  required  to  solve.  And  also  when 
they  succeed  in  surmounting  the  obstacles  in  their  path  they 
abandon  themselves  to  rejoicing  more  than  if  they  did  not  have 
obstacles  to  overcome.  To  illustrate,  —  when  a  nation  has 
been  engaged  in  a  deadly  conflict  with  another  nation  and  con- 
quers it,  the  joy  of  the  conqueror  is  unbounded,  far  greater 
than  if  it  had  not  lived  through  a  period  of  extreme  storm  and 
stress. 

Thus  far  mention  has  been  made  only  of  expressional   ac- 
tivities concerned  with  emotion ;    a  word  should  now  be  said 
regarding    the    expression    of    thought.     Most    per- 
sons   apparently    believe    that    thought    is    revealed  expression 
in    characteristic    featural    activities    and    attitudes.   °  *  °"^  * 
We  frequently  hear  one  person  say  of  another  that  he  has  a 
"thoughtful,"      "reflective"      countenance.        However,      one 
rarely  hears  it  said  of  a  very  young  child  that  he  has  a  thought- 
ful expression.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  during  the  first  few  years 
one  does  not  see  any  expression  which  could  be  regarded  as 
the    accompaniment   of  reflection  in   the  sense  in  which   this 
term   should   be   understood.     Always    the    expression    of    the 
young  child's  features  indicates  feeling ;    reflective  processes  do 
not   occur   independent   of   dominating   emotional    accompani- 
ment.    It  is  quite  impossible  to  indicate  the  precise  time  when 


94 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 


reflection  becomes   so   important    tliat    tlie   imiividual    may    be 
occupied  for  a  i)erio(l   in   thought  unaccompanied  by    feeling; 


Fig.  II.  —  Studies  in  the  expression  of  the  eyes.     (See  exercise  i8,  page  324.) 

but  it  is  probable  that  this  does  not  occur  until  the  approach  of 
the  preadolescent  age.  Before  this  period  a  child  may  be  ob- 
served critically  examining  the  objects  about  him,  and  while  the 


KXPRESSIONAL   ACin  iriES  95 

examination  is  being  made  his  body  will  be  coordinated  upon 
them ;  the  brow  will  be  knit ;  there  will  probably  be  tension  of 
the  eyes ;  the  head  will  be  inclined  forward ;  in  brief,  all  the 
expressions  will  be  such  as  are  required  in  order  to  bring  the 
eyes  and  hands  and,  if  necessary,  the  ears  and  the  organs  of 
taste  and  smell  into  connection  with  the  object  being  examined. 
It  would  not  be  quite  accurate,  though,  to  speak  of  these  activi- 
ties and  attitudes  as  the  expression  of  thought,  for  the  reason 
that  we  must  regard  thought  as  concerned  with  the  organiza- 
tion and  interpretation  of  the  data  of  experience.  We  can- 
not use  the  term  "thinking"  for  the  process  of  gaining  sensory 
impressions,  but  only  for  the  organization  and  interpretation  of 
these  impressions  once  they  are  gained. 

Taking  reflection  in  this  sense,  then,  we  may  ask,  —  Is 
thought  at  any  time  during  childhood  and  youth  accompanied 
by  characteristic  expression  ?  There  are  two  types  of  ex- 
pression which  accompany  reflection.  In  the  one  case  there  is 
absence  of  activity  in  the  features,  especially  in  respect  to  the 
region  about  the  eyes.  The  impression  one  gains  in  observing 
such  a  countenance  is  that  while  the  eye  may  be  open  the  vision 
is  actually  turned  inward.  The  individual  does  not  take  notice 
of  what  is  striking  on  his  retina ;  he  is  actually  seeing  words  or 
images  which  are  internally  aroused.  When  the  individual  is 
engaged  in  gaining  impressions  he  seeks  to  bring  the  required 
senses  into  contact  with  the  thing  concerning  which  he  wishes 
to  gain  information ;  but  in  reflection  he  aims  to  neutralize 
the  senses,  so  to  speak,  in  order  that  they  may  not  report  data 
which  will  interfere  with  the  internal  processes  which  are  tak- 
ing place. 

There  is  another  type  of  expression  which  often  accompanies 
reflection  and  which  becomes  increasingly  prominent  as  the  in- 
dividual develops.  One  often  sees  an  eighteen-  or  nineteen- 
year-old  person  trying  to  solve  a  geometrical  or  grammatical 


96  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

or  soiiu'  olht-r  kind  ol  ptoblciii,  and  I  lie  imiMcssion  made  upon 
the  observer  is  that  he  is  endeavoring  to  overcome  obstacles. 
There  may  be  furrows  in  the  brow ;  the  eyes  may  be  converged 
as  though  concentrated  upon  a  near-by  external  object,  and 
sometimes  they  may  be  closed  as  though  to  shut  out  disturb- 
ing impressions ;  the  hands  may  be  clenched  and  the  lips  com- 
pressed. The  expressions  suggest  that  the  individual  is  en- 
gaged in  a  struggle.     What  is  he  striving  to  accomplish?     The 

purpose  of  all  reflection  is  to  bring  an  ill-understood 
involves  ov  uuknowu  datum  of  experience  into  accord  with 
strain  and      ;vhat   is   already   understood.     In   geometry   a   new 

problem  must  be  harmonized  with  problems  already 
assimilated,  and  the  same  principle  holds  for  all  problems  what- 
soever. When  the  individual  is  reflecting  he  is  endeavoring  to 
organize  what  he  knows  and  mobilize  it  so  as  to  bring  it  to  bear 
upon  the  problem  he  is  considering.  If  there  is  no  objective 
problem  to  be  solved  then  his  reflection  will  be  concerned  with 
establishing  congruity  and  harmony  among  his  experiences. 
Incongruity  is  always  a  source  of  distress  to  an  individual  and  so 
he  will  keep  turning  incongruous  experiences  around  in  order 
to  look  at  them  from  various  angles.  He  tries  to  brea,k  up  com- 
plex experiences  to  see  how  they  are  constituted  in  the  hope 
that  he  may  discover  some  characteristics  about  them  that  will 
bring  them  into  accord  with  his  assimilated  experiences. 

To  illustrate,  let  us  say  that  an  individual,  as  a  result  of  his 
observation,  his  reading  and  the  instruction  he  has  received  has 
established  the  conviction  that  the  Creator  founded  the  Chris- 
tian religion  and  that  Christianity  affords  the  only  safe  guide 
to  life.  But  now  some  Christian  nations  engage  in  war  and 
practice  cruelties  upon  one  another.  This  fact  will  not  as- 
similate with  the  individual's  established  convictions  regard- 
ing the  Christian  religion.  It  is  a  disturbing  element  in  his 
life,  and  he  will  probably  be  engaged  continually  in  the  effort 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  97 

to  bring  this  new  experience  into  harmony  with  his  estabhshcd 
beliefs.  He  will  examine  every  aspect  of  the  new  phenome- 
non. He  will  scrutinize  the  cruel  and  barbaric  actions  of  the 
belligerents  in  the  effort  to  see  if  he  can  find  a  motive  for  them 
which  will  be  in  accord  with  Christian  teaching.  For  months 
he  may  be  engaged  in  this  process,  and  while  he  is  engaged  in 
it  his  features  and  bodily  attitudes  will  reveal  the  struggle  he 
is  passing  through.  While  he  is  reflecting  he  may  lean  forward 
and  support  his  head  with  his  hands  as  though  his  task  were 
too  great  for  him.  He  may  rub  his  scalp  with  his  hand  as  though 
he  were  removing  an  irritation  ;  and  continuously  the  brow  may 
be  knit  as  though  he  were  constraining  himself  to  put  forth 
all  his  effort.  Occasionally  he  may  lift  his  shoulders  and  take  a 
deep  breath  as  though  he  had  been  holding  liis  breath  in  order 
that  he  might  concentrate  all  his  energy  upon  the  task  in  which 
he  has  been  engaged. 

It  has  already  been  intimated  that  these  expressions  of  re- 
flection are  never  seen  in  the  features  of  very  young  children. 
They  will  appear  only  when  the  individual  begins  to  organize 
and  harmonize  his  experiences,  which  is  not  much  if  any  before 
the  pre-adolescent  period.  During  the  earHest  years  the  in- 
tellectual processes  are  concerned  principally  with  the  acquisi- 
tion of  comparatively  simple  data  which  do  not  have  complex 
characteristics  and  so  which  do  not  require  much  scrutiny  or 
interpretation.  In  his  school  work  the  young  child  is  engaged 
principally  in  acquiring  concrete  data  and  only  very  slightly 
in  elaborating  and  organizing  what  he  gains.  His  spelUng, 
reading,  number,  geography,  language,  even  his  history  and 
literature  do  not  require  organization  of  experience  except  in  a 
low  degreee.  The  relations  between  the  data  which  he  ac- 
quires are  quickly  discovered  ;  he  does  not  have  to  trace  su1)tle 
and  recondite  relations.  But  as  he  goes  through  the  high  school 
and  the  college  his  knowledge  becomes  ever  more  complicated 


98     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

and  so  he  must  be  engaged  ever  more  largely  in  the  process  of 
organizing  experience ;  and  more  and  more  the  expressions  of 
reflection  as  described  above  become  prominent. 

The  expressional  activities  discussed  thus  far  have  been  prin- 
cipally of  the  nature  of  reflex  accompaniments  of  emotions  and 
to  a  slight  extent  of  reflection.  These  activities  are  not  purpose- 
ful in  the  sense  that  they  have  in  view  the  attainment  of  any 
definite  objectives.  The  individual  docs  not  perform  them  for 
the  purpose  of  making  his  thought  clearer  or  his  feelings  more 
emphatic  to  his  observers,  although  it  happens  fortunately  that 
his  expressions  do  reveal  to  his  associates  the  character  and  in- 
tensity of  his  feelings,  and  so  they  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  way 
in  which  they  should  deal  with  him ;  but  the  individual  is  not 
aware  that  his  expressions  are  thus  of  service  to  him.  As  we  have 
seen,  they  are  remnants  of  once  useful  activities  in  defense  and 
offense,  in  securing  objects  of  value,  and  in  relaxation  of  ten- 
sions developed  by  strain  and  stress  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
On  this  account  they  are  of  service  in  adaptation  even  though 
the  actor  is  unaware  of  their  serviceablcness  and  could  not  de- 
liberately employ  them  with  a  view  to  promoting  his  welfare. 

But  there  are  expressional  activities  which  are  performed 
deliberately  by  the  individual  for  the  purpose  of  amplifying 
or  defining  his  thought  or  for  interpreting  and  em- 
expSsTionai  phasizing  his  feelings.  These  activities  are  gen- 
activities—    erally  denoted  roughly  by  the  term  "gesture."     As 

Gestiire  .  ,        , 

this  term  is  commonly  understood  it  refers  to  bodily 
attitudes  and  to  movements  of  arms,  hands,  legs,  and  head,  de- 
liberately executed  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  ideas  to  one's 
fellows  or  inciting  them  to  action.  The  arms  and  hands  play 
the  principal,  though  not  the  sole,  part  in  gesture  in  the  sense 
in  which  we  shall  here  consider  it. 

The  activities  of  the  infant's  arms  and  hands  are  entirely 
random  in  character.     When  he  beholds  his  mother  his  arms  and 


EXPRESSIONAL   ACTIVITIES  99 

legs  are  usually  violently  agitated,  but  they  do  not  have  a  def- 
inite relation  to  the  end  he  wishes  to  achieve,  which  is  to  induce 
his  mother  to  hold  or  to  feed  him  or  to  entertain  him.  By  the 
fourth  month,  however,  when  he  desires  to  have  her  take  him, 
he  will  extend  his  arms  vigorously  toward  her.  By  the  seventh 
or  eighth  month,  if  he  wishes  an  object  which  he  cannot  reach 
and  there  is  a  person  near  by  who  can  help  him  he  will  project 
his  arms  in  the  direction  of  the  object,  meanwhile  uttering  sounds 
which  the  observer  interprets  to  mean  that  the  child  desires 
to  secure  the  object.  If  he  is  lying  down  his  legs  will  be  set  in 
motion  and  his  whole  body  will  reveal  lively  feeling.  The  activ- 
ities of  his  arms  will  convey  to  the  caretaker  the  direction  or 
definiteness  of  his  desires,  but  his  gesture  is  made  emphatic  by 
vocal  and  featural  expression  and  bodily  attitudes.  The  func- 
tion of  the  gesture  is  mainly  to  define  his  desires  while  the  func- 
tion of  the  accompanying  expressive  activities  is  to  attract 
and  hold  attention  and  to  impress  the  importance  of  his  de- 
sires. 

The  year-old  child  relies  quite  largely  upon  gesticulation  to 
ampKfy  his  thought  and  to  define  his  desires  to  his  caretakers. 
His  skill  in  the  use  of  gesture  continually  increases  until  about 
the  third  year.  From  then  on  for  several  years  there  is  neither 
increase  nor  decline,  probably  until  about  the  eighth  year.  When 
the  individual  is  slow  in  accjuiring  language,  gesture  continues 
to  be  used  very  freely  until  the  age  of  eleven  or  twelve  or  even 
beyond. 

As  the  child  develops,  he  comes  in  time  to  use  his  arms,  and 
to  a  less  extent  other  members  of  his  body,  in  what  may  be  called 
figurative  gesture.  By  the  time  he  is  three  years  Figurative 
of  age — it  is  impossible  to  be  precise  with  respect  to  gesture 
the  date  when  any  of  these  activities  appear  because  the  date 
dififers  in  individual  cases  and  it  never  comes  suddenly  or  vio- 
lently —  he  begins  to  use  his  arms  and  body  freely  to  convey 


100  MENTAL  DFA'ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

ideas  ol'  sizo,  for  instance,  bi)^)icss  and  suKilliicss  especially.  He 
sees  a  big  dog,  and  in  narrating  the  fact  to  father  or  mother 
he  will  lift  his  arms  as  high  and  swing  them  out  as  broadly  as 
he  can,  and  he  will  stretch  his  l)ody  upward  and  draw  out  his 
voice  as  though  he  were  trying  to  make  himself  big  in  every 
way.  He  will  do  this  in  a  more  impressive  way  at  four  than 
at  three,  and  still  more  impressive  at  six.  At  the  age  of  nine  or 
ten  he  will  begin  to  abandon  this  method  in  conveying  his  idea 
of  bigness.  He  will  rely  more  largely  than  he  did  earlier  upon 
the  verbal  terms  he  uses.  He  will  say  "an  awfully  big  dog," 
and  dwell  on  the  words  "awfully  big."  He  will  supplement 
the  words  with  a  modified  form  of  the  gesture  for  bigness,  but  he 
will  not  depend  upon  this  to  convey  his  thought  as  fully  as  the 
two-  or  three-  or  four-year-old  child  does.  At  fifteen  he  is 
not  likely  to  use  the  gesture  at  all ;  he  will  now  rely  upon  verbal 
symbols  and  particularly  upon  figurative  speech  rather  than  upon 
figurative  gesture  to  reveal  his  experience.  He  will  say  that  he 
has  seen  an  "immensely  big"  or  "tremendously  big"  or  "enor- 
mously large"  dog;  or  more  likely  still  he  will  say  that  he  saw  a 
dog  "as  big  as  a  horse"  or  "as  big  as  an  elephant,"  and  so  on. 
Thereafter  figurative  language  and  qualitative  verbal  symbols 
will  play  the  chief  role  in  conveying  the  idea  of  bigness  or  great- 
ness. 

In  expressing  the  idea  of  diminutive  size  the  child  of  three 
will  spontaneously  use  gesture  contrasted  with  the  gesture  for 
bigness.  He  may  bring  his  thumb  and  his  fingers  together  as 
if  he  were  grasping  the  small  thing  he  is  describing,  and  his  body 
will  probably  incline  forward  and  appear  to  contract,  as  it  were. 
He  will  make  his  voice  thin  as  though  he  were  trying  to  become 
as  small  in  every  way  as  the  object  he  has  in  view.  The  child 
of  six  years  will  use  somewhat  similar  gesture  in  describing 
minute  objects,  but  by  the  age  of  fifteen  this  mode  of  expres- 
sion will  disappear ;   as  in  the  case  of  describing  large  objects, 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  lOi 

SO  with  small  ones,  —  reliance  will  be  placed  principally  upon 
qualitative  words  as  "tiny,"  "wee,"  and  so  on,  and  upon  figura- 
tive speech  rather  than  figurative  gesture,  though  an  orator 
may  revert  to  the  gestures  of  cliildhood  in  describing  small 
objects. 

The  two-year-old  child  makes  use  of  gesture  quite  largely  to 
define  to  liis  associates  the  actions  and  qualities  of  the  objects 

with  which  he  comes  in  contact.     Let  us  say  that 

11  1  •  1    1      1  1   .  "^^^  "^®  °^ 

he  has  a  dog  which  he  has  observed  jump  over  the  gesture  in 

fence  and  he  wishes  to  convey  this  idea  to  his  mother.  Seas'oiT^ 
He  has  acquired  the  word  for  dog  and  possibly  for  quality  and 
jump,  but  he  has  not  learned  the  words  for  fence  or 
over.     So  he  calls  to  his  mother  "Doggy!     Doggy!"    and  then 
he  jumps,  at  the  same  time  looking  and  throwing  his  arms  up- 
ward as  though  he  were  trying  to  mount  over  something  high. 
This  is  definite  enough  for  him,  and  usually  it  is  definite  enough 
for  the  one  to  whom  he  is  conveying  his  idea.     Again,  the  dog 
rolls  over  on  the  floor.     He  does  not  know  the  words  for  roll 
or  over,  but  he  knows  the  words  for  dog  and  floor,  and  so  he 
says:    "Doggy  floor,"  and  down  he  flops  on  the  floor  and  rolls 
over.     So  he  barks  to  convey  the  idea  of  what  the  dog  does, 
using  the  word  "  doggy."     He  takes  a  stick  in  his  mouth  and  runs 
around  with  it,  again  conveying  an  idea  of  an  act  he  has  watched 
the  dog  perform  ;  and  so  on  ad  libitum. 

From  about  the  second  year  onward  for  several  years  the 
normal  individual  makes  generous  use  of  gesticulation  in  convey- 
ing ideas  of  action  observed  in  the  people  and  the  things  about 
him.  He  never  at  any  age  completely  abandons  gesture  as  an 
aid  to  the  expression  of  ideas  of  action,  but  as  a  rule  it  decHnes 
according  as  his  vocabulary  enlarges  and  his  facility  in  the  use 
of  the  sentence  increases.  An  orator,  though,  often  tries  to 
make  clear  the  actions  he  is  depicting  by  reproducing  their  es- 
sential characteristics.     If  he  is  describing  a  situation  in  which 


I02  MENTAL  DE\'ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCAllON 

soldiers  "went  over  Ihc  top,"  he  may  incline  his  body  and 
thrust  it  forward  as  though  he,  too,  were  going  over  the  top.  If 
he  is  talking  of  the  flight  of  an  airship,  his  arms  will  sweep  out- 
ward and  upward  and  his  head  and  eyes  will  follow  the  move- 
ment as  though  he  were  watching  the  ship  glide  through  the 
air.  If  he  is  describing  a  situation  in  which  a  hero  knocks  down 
a  bully,  his  own  fists  will  be  clenched,  his  body  will  assume  a 
defiant  attitude,  and  he  will  bring  back  his  arms  as  though  to 
administer  the  blow  to  the  villain.  But  the  orator  is  rarely  as 
facile  and  resourceful  in  the  use  of  gesture  to  convey  ideas  of 
action  as  the  child  is,  probably  because  he  does  not  feel  so  great 
a  need  of  it  since  he  can  convey  his  ideas  more  adequately  by 
means  of  appropriate  words  and  figurative  language. 

Gesture  is  used  by  the  child  not  only  to  make  his  thought 
definite  to  his  associates,  but  it  is  used  also  to  emphasize  his 
feeling.     As  an  illustration,  take  the  case  of  a  four- 
gesture  to      year-old  child  who,  when  he  tells  or  listens  to  a  story 
emphasize      j^  which  an  Ogre  does  harm  to  some  innocent  per- 

feeling  -  ,  ^ 

son,  clenches  his  fists  and  sets  his  teeth  as  though 
he  intended  to  destroy  him.  The  fist  is  used  figuratively  by  the 
child  very  freely  after  the  age  of  six  or  so,  as  when,  complain- 
ing of  being  kept  after  school  by  the  teacher,  he  informs  his 
mother  that  he  will  never  stay  again,  and  with  his  fist  he  strikes 
the  table  to  emphasize  his  determination.  There  are  innumera- 
ble situations  as  he  develops  in  which  the  fist  struck  on  the 
table  or  projected  forwarrl  is  symbolic  of  a  defiant  or  an  aggres- 
sive attitude,  as  though  something  wTrc  standing  in  his  way  or 
interfering  with  his  pleasure  and  he  intended  to  remove  it  or  to 
destroy  it.  Public  speakers  frequently  make  use  of  this  ges- 
ture to  impress  their  con\'ictions  upon  their  audience.  Even 
preachers  in  the  pulpit  strike  at  the  evils  which  they  are  con- 
demning, and  the  fist  plays  a  prominent  part  in  reenforcing  the 
lessons  they  seek  to  teach. 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  T03 

There  are  many  of  these  figurative  expressions  which  the  in- 
dividual makes  use  of  in  the  course  of  his  development.  He 
raises  his  brows,  for  instance,  to  express  surprise  or  sometimes 
doubt  or  suspicion  as  though  he  were  opening  his  eyes  wide  to 
view  more  clearly  the  matter  under  consideration.  He  makes 
a  peculiar  upward  and  backward  movement  of  his  shoulders 
to  suggest  that  he  is  indifferent  to  the  situation  which  is  pre- 
sented or  which  he  is  describing.  He  lifts  his  arms  and  his 
eyes  upward  to  impress  his  feelings  of  reverence  and  submis- 
sion. On  the  other  hand,  he  casts  his  eyes  downward  to  con- 
vey the  feeling  of  repentance  or  humiliation  or  consciousness 
of  sin.  When  he  develops  an  idea  which  requires  clear  think- 
ing and  he  wishes  his  hearer  to  grasp  it,  he  extends  his  index 
finger  toward  his  listener  as  though  he  were  driving  the  thought 
into  his  listener's  consciousness.  This  gesture  is  frequently 
observed  on  the  platform,  mainly  by  speakers  who  are  striving 
to  convey  ideas  across  to  their  hearers.  One  rarely  observes  a 
speaker  using  this  gesture  who  is  aiming  principally  to  influence 
feeling  and  to  strengthen  conviction. 

It  was  intimated  above  that  gesture  serves  as  an  aid  to  or 
substitute  for  language.     If  the  child  were  born  with  a  language 
ready-made  so  that  he  could  convey  his  experiences  j^  j  .j      j 
adequately  by  means  of  it,  he  would  probably  make  gesture  to 
but  little  use  of  gesture.     Feeble-minded  individuals    ^'^^"*^® 
who  never  gain  a  mastery  of  a  complex  sentence  and  whose 
vocabulary  is  quite  limited  continue  throughout  hfe  to  depend 
largely  upon  gesture  to  convey  their  ideas.     For  instance,  they 
continue  to  the  last  to  point  to  different  parts  of  their  body  to 
denote  needs  or  services  which  they  desire.     They  describe  the 
qualities  and  actions  of  persons  and  things  almost  wholly  by 
gesture.     In  respect  to  the  use  of  gesture,  they  remain  in  the 
stage  of  early  or  of  later  childhood  according  to  the  degree  of 
their  feeble-mindedness. 


I04  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

The  question  may  be  asked  at  this  point:   "Why  do  persons 
who  apparently  develop  at  substantially  the  same  rate  in  in- 
telligence differ  in  their  use  of  gesture?"     Even  in 
differences     maturity  thcrc  are  marked  differences  between  per- 
in  the  use      g^^j-^^  [y^  rcspcct  to  freedom  in  the  use  of  gesture.     This 

of  gestxire 

may  partly  be  explained  by  a  difference  in  national 
traits.  We  have  seen  in  another  connection  that  races  differ 
in  mobility  of  expression.  The  Italian  is  more  expressive  and 
also  he  gesticulates  more  than  the  Norwegian.  The  Irish  are 
more  expressive  and  they  gesticulate  more  freely  than  the 
English.  Then  one  can  take  members  of  the  same  race  and  he 
will  find  that  one  relies  upon  gesture  more  than  another.  In 
such  a  case  it  will  probably  be  found  that  the  man  who  relies 
least  upon  gesture  is  more  intellectual  and  less  emotional  than 
the  others.  He  probably  assumes  an  attitude  of  reflection 
more  often  than  the  others  do  and  so  he  becomes  inhibited  in 
respect  to  the  use  of  gesture.  One  sees  this  principle  illustrated 
in  a  university.  One  man  may  be  engaged  for  long  periods  at  a 
time  in  working  out  problems  demanding  reflection,  and  if  he 
does  not  have  experience  in  presenting  his  thought  to  others  or 
if  what  he  presents  is  devoid  of  emotion,  he  is  not  likely  to  de- 
pend upon  gesture  to  help  to  make  his  ideas  definite,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  character  of  his  ideas  is  such  that  gesture  will  not 
assist  in  their  portrayal.  The  thought  is  too  involved,  too  subtle, 
too  slightly  connected  with  emotion  to  be  revealed  by  direct  or 
figurative  gesture.  Gesture  would  rather  interfere  with  than 
aid  in  the  interpretation  of  thought  of  this  character.  But 
this  man  may  have  a  colleague  whose  thoughts  have  more  di- 
rect bearing  upon  human  conduct  and  welfare,  and  they  may 
have  an  emotional  setting  so  that  gesture  may  be  an  aid  in  con- 
veying the  impressions  which  the  individual  wishes  his  hearers 
to  gain.  If  this  speaker  should  change  places  with  his  colleague 
and   should  have   to  present  abstract   and   complicated   ideas 


EXPRESSIONAI.   ACTIVITIES  105 

that  would  have  no  direct  conned  ion  with  behavior  and  which 
were  not  propounded  for  the  sake  of  influencing  conduct,  he 
would  be  Ukely  to  abandon  gesture  and  rely  wholly  upon  other 
modes  of  conveying  his  ideas,  —  upon  the  choice  of  precise 
words,  the  use  of  pictures  and  other  graphic  means  of  con- 
veying ideas,  and  so  on.  Gesture  is  too  general  and  undiffer- 
entiated and  non-precise  to  assist  in  conveying  subtle,  com- 
plicated thought. 


chaptf;r  vt 

EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:   GRAPHIC,  PICTORIAL 

We  of  to-day  can  hardly  realize  that  there  was  ever  a  time 
when  men  had  no  means  of  reveahng  their  experiences  to  those 
-fj^g  who  could  not  observe  their  gesticulations  or  featural 

develop-        expression  or  who  could  not  hear  their  voice.     But 

ment  -^f  a 

sign  our    remotest    ancestors    had    no    methods   of    com- 

language  munlcating  their  experiences  to  persons  at  a  distance 
or  to  those  who  should  come  after  them  in  time.  That  is  to  say, 
they  had  no  graphic  methods  of  expression ;  they  relied  entirely 
upon  manual,  featural,  postural  and  vocal  activities  to  reveal 
their  beliefs,  their  aversions  and  their  desires.  The  range  of  their 
expressional  activity  was  enlarged  when  they  discovered  that 
they  could  communicate  with  each  other  by  the  use  of  signs  in 
which  they  could  reproduce  by  the  positions  or  movements  of 
their  fingers,  hands,  arms  and  postures  certain  of  the  striking 
and  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  objects  or  phenomena 
about  them.  But  this  sign  language  served  only  as  a  medium 
of  communication  with  persons  who  were  present  and  could 
actually  see  the  signs  ;  it  did  not  enable  an  individual  to  transmit 
his  experiences  to  those  who  were  remote  from  him  in  time  or 
space.  But  the  employment  of  gestural  and  postural  signs 
paved  the  way  for  the  elaboration  of  a  system  of  communication 
by  means  of  which  ideas  could  be  conveyed  to  persons  distant 
from  the  individual  in  time  and  in  space.  It  was  found  that 
by  making  pictures  in  reproduction  of  their  gestural  and  postural 
signs  they  could  convey  their  experiences  to  persons  who  were 

1 06 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:    GRArillC,   PICTORIAl.      107 

absent ;  that  is,  they  could  suggest  objects  and  their  relations  to 
one  another  and  to  themselves  as  well  by  means  of  lines  in  the 
sand  or  on  stones  or  trees  as  they  could  by  physical  signs.  In 
this  way  drawing  originated.  It  played  a  role  at  the  outset 
merely  as  a  medium  of  communicating  with  those  who  were 
remote  in  time  or  space  from  the  individual.  By  means  of  rude 
diagrams  embodying  some  of  the  form  characteristics  of  objects 
man  found  that  he  could  suggest  these  objects  to  anyone  who 
might  see  the  diagrams ;  and  by  arranging  the  diagrams  in 
certain  spatial  relations,  it  was  found  to  be  possible  to  suggest 
what  the  objects  were  doing  or  what  the  artist  did  with  them 
or  what  he  desired  that  others  should  do  with  them.  Thus 
primitive  man  used  his  diagrams  to  convey  to  his  absent  asso- 
ciates what  he  would  have  conveyed  to  them  by  means  of  voice, 
grimace,  gesture  and  posture  if  they  had  been  within  hearing 
and  seeing  distance  of  him.  In  this  simple,  crude  way  our 
modern  complicated  system  of  graphic  language  originated. 

It  w^as  intimated  above  that  in  the  early  stages  of  the  employ- 
ment of  drawing  as  a  medium  of  expression,  primitive  man  used 
diagrams  which  embodied  just  enough  of  the  char-  ^j^^ 
acteristics  of  objects  to  suggest  them  to  the  observer.  develop- 
Fortunately  experience  with  these  diagrams  led  grad-  linguistic 
ually  to  the  reaHzation  that  it  should  be  possible  to  ^y™^°^^ 
employ  signs  which  would  not  have  any  direct  connection  with 
objects  but  which  nevertheless  could  be  utiKzed  to  designate 
objects.     And  if  a  sign  which  did  not  look  like  any  object  could 
be  used  to  denote  objects  it  would  be  more  serviceable  than  a 
diagram  which  would  be  confined  in  suggestiveness  to  the  objects 
which  it  resembled  in  some  degree.     When  early  man  caught 
this  idea  he  started  on  the  development  of  a  system  of  graphic 
signs  which  would  be  purely  symbolic ;  —  that  is,  they  would 
have  no  pictorial  resemblance  to  the  objects  or  ideas  which  they 
denoted. 


io8  MENIAL   DENELOrMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

Coming  now  to  the  child,  —  how  docs  he  acquire  these 
graphic  means  of  expression  ?  He  does  not  have  to  learn  grimace 
Scribbling  or  gcsturc  or  intonation ;  does  he  have  to  learn 
activities  dramng?  He  acquires  spoken  language  readily 
through  imitation ;  will  he  acquire  written  language  in  the 
same  way  ? 

Give  a  three-year-old  child  a  pencil  and  a  piece  of  paper 
and  he  will  find  pleasure  in  scribbling.     So  far  as  one  can  tell 


7     1     AA    M 

Fig.  12.  ^  The  evolution  of  the  letter  M.     (.See  exercise  i,  page  325.) 

he  does  not  make  use  of  this  scribbling  as  a  means  of  convey- 
ing to  those  about  him  how  he  feels  or  what  he  wishes  to  do  or 
what  he  would  like  to  have  them  do.  He  seems  to  say,  — 
"Look  at  these  black  marks  I  am  making;  it  is  great  to  be 
able  to  do  a  thing  like  this."  He  does  not  appear  to  say: 
"Look  at  the  man  I  have  made,"  or  the  dog  or  the  horse. 

This  scribbling  activity  continues  until  the  fourth  or  fifth 
year.  It  might  continue  longer  if  a  child  should  be  left  entirely 
without  suggestion  or  guidance ;  but  it  is  apparently  impos- 
sible for  an  adult  to  restrain  himself  from  responding  to  a  child's 
invitation  to  "make  a  picture  of  something."  A  four-year- 
old  child  who  has  pencil  and  paper  will  beg  a  bystander  to 


EXPRESSIONAL   ACTIMTIES :     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL       109 


"make  a  picture"  lor  him,  and  the  byslandi'r  will  usually  make 
diagrams  resembling  those  made  by  early  man  ;  and  a  partic- 
ular diagram  will  as  a  rule  represent  the  same  object  that  primi- 
tive people  used  it  to  denote.  A  three-year-old  child  will 
make  a  number  of  lines  without  any  definite  relation  to  each 
other  and  then  exclaim  :  ''Look  at  Kitty,"  or  ''Look  at  Daddy," 


^ 


^ 


/ 


Fig.  13. — Examples  of  pictorial  writing.  —  i,  Warning; 
4,  Wheat  stored  in  pit ;  5,  Traveling  on  foot,  and  by  water. 


2,   Combat;    3,  Morning; 
(See  exercise  2,  page  325,) 


or  some  other  person  or  object.  The  expression  of  his  features 
will  indicate  that  he  is  pleased  with  his  handiwork,  but  it  is 
probable  that  what  really  gives  him  pleasure  is  not  only  the 
product  of  his  efforts  but  also  the  act  of  making  the  picture. 
He  still  is  in  the  stage  when  he  enjoys  merely  managing  a  pen- 
cil.    Between  the  fourth  and  the  fifth  year,  however,  he  nor- 


no  MEN'IAI.    DICVELOPiMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

iiially  abandons  llir  scribhlinj^  stage  and  enters  the  diagram- 
matic stage  in  graphic  expression.  When  he  enters  the  latter  stage 
he  will  no  longer  be  interested  largely  in  the  muscular  activity 
of  running  his  pencil  over  the  paper ;  he  will  strive  to  make 
pictures  that  bear  at  least  a  slight  resemblance  to  objects. 


G    ^ 


►r 


^ 


Tic.   13a.  —  Examples  of  pictorial  writing.  —  6,  Eating;   7,  Singing;   8,  Snow; 
9,  Conversation;   10,  Sun;   11,  Star.     (See  exercise  2,  page  325.) 

From  this  point  forward,  the  child's  development  in  respect 
to  the  use  of  drawing  as  a  medium  of  expression  is  of  great 
studies  of  psychological  and  educational  interest.  With  a 
chUdren's      view  to  Studying  this  matter  the  writer  conducted 

drawings  .  .  1      •  1  1  •  1 

a  series  of  experiments  designed  to  determine  the 
relation  between  the  child's  diagrams  or  symbols  or  pictures 
and  the  ideas  which  he  seeks  to  convey  by  means  of  them. 

Two  principal  lines  of  investigation  were  undertaken,  each 
supplementing  the  other,  the  object  throughout  being  to  study 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL       iii 

the  relation  of  spontaneous  drawing  to  the  contents  and  opera- 
tion of  the  child's  mind  in  certain  directions.  In  the  lirst 
place,  an  investigation  was  made  of  the  general  form  and  char- 
acteristics of  representations  of  objects  that  were  drawn  to  il- 
lustrate a  bit  of  narration  or  description,  usually  cast  into  the 
story  form ;  and  also,  drawings  made  from  objects  seen  and 
from  memory  were  studied  in  the  same  way.  Second,  the  re- 
lations in  time  and  place,  and  the  proportions  shown  in  the 
objects  drawn  were  studied ;  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  dis- 
cover whether  or  not  they  portrayed  relations  and  proportions 
actually  conceived  by  the  child.  A  large  number  of  draw- 
ings for  these  studies  were  obtained  from  school  children ;  and 
there  were,  in  addition,  some  younger  children  between  three 
and  four  years  of  age  tested  in  their  own  homes.  Most  of  the 
pupils  who  made  drawings  were  subjected  to  tests  of  vision 
and  motor-ability  and  the  results  kept  in  record  with  other 
data  concerning  the  drawings,  and  careful  statements  based 
upon  close  study  of  the  physical  and  intellectual  character- 
istics of  each  child  were  obtained  from  several  teachers  under 
whom  the  drawings  were  made ;  and  these  were  taken  into 
account  in  certain  studies. 

It  was  found  after  considerable  experimentation  that  the 
attempt  to  interpret  these  drawings  as  expressions  of  the  mental 
characteristics  and  activities  of  their  authors,  or  to  account  for 
them  if  they  were  not  such,  necessitated  close  familiarity  with 
the  habits  and  capabilities  of  mind  and  body  of  a  number  of 
children  in  order  to  examine  everything  that  could  in  any  way 
contribute  to  an  understanding  of  the  peculiarities  shown  in 
their  drawings.  For  this  purpose  about  fifty  childrea  in  a 
normal  school  were  studied  in  a  thorough  manner.  About  ten 
thousand  story  drawings  have  been  obtained  from  children 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  eleven,  at  least  six  being  made  by 
every  child ;    while  from  the  fifty  children  upon  whom  special 


ri2 


ISIKNTAl.    lJi:\  KLOPMKNT   WD    KDUCATION 


sUkHcs  wcrr  made  an  average  of  lliiiiy-hve  drawings  were  ol)- 
taincd,  these  being  made  at  intervals  extending  over  a  period  of 
nine  months.  Such  stories  as  "The  Three  Bears,"  "Johnny- 
Look-in-the-Air,"  "The  Lion  and  the  Mouse,"  "Jack  Frost," 
and  quite  a  number  of  original  stories  for  the  })urpose  of 
bringing  in  certain  objects 
in  particular  relations  and 
events  were  used.  These 
were  read  or  told  twice 
to  the  children,  who  were 
then  asked  to  tell  them 
back  on  paper  without  help 
from  anyone. 

In   the   study  of   these 
drawings  the  first  question 

asked  was :  "Do 

children  refrain 

from      drawing 

certain    objects 

in  a  story  be- 
cause of  the  difficulty  of 
representation?"  As  an 
aid  toward  answering  this, 
the  children  were  given 
complete  freedom  to  ex- 
press any  difficulties  which 
they  encountered  in  illus- 
trating a  number  of  stories, 

and  tp  consult  the  experimenter  upon  any  point  that  troubled 
them.  They  were  closely  observed  while  a  story  was  being 
read  to  them  and  during  the  making  of  the  drawings ;  and 
when  they  had  finished  their  task  the  story  was  told  orally  by 
them  ^vithout  consulting  the  drawings  to  see  if  objects  and  events 


Difficulty 
of  rep- 
resentation 
no  barrier 
to  ex- 
pression 


Fig.  14. 


-  Jack  and  the  Bean  Stalk, 
exercise  3,  page  325.) 


(See 


EXPRESSIONAL   ACTIVITIES:     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL      113 

were  remembered  that  were  not  pictured.  From  the  records 
of  five  hundred  cases  studied  in  this  way,  about  one  per  cent 
indicated  that  they  could  not  represent  certain  objects,  among 
these  being  a  bridge,  a  horse  and  carriage,  and  a  fairy  that  had  a 
part  in  one  of  the  stories.  However,  only  four  children  out  of 
thirty  specially  tested  failed  to  draw  the  fairy;  and  there  was 
no  hesitancy  either  in  representing  the  wind,  ''Jack  Frost," 
and  other  invisible  things.  It  seems  that  with  children  of 
this  age  there  are  few  objects  ever  seen  or  heard  of  that  are 
too  difficult  for  speedy  and  confident  portrayal. 

But  while  all  objects  are  readily  and  easily  drawn  as  a  whole, 
still  children  often  say  that  they  cannot  represent  the  activities 
or  some  of  the  special  attributes  of  an  object.  In  the  story 
of  "Silverhair"  when  she  is  running  away  from  the  bears,  the 
children  sometimes  say,  —  "She  is  running,  but  I  cannot  make 
her  so";  or  they  cannot  show  both  feet  turned  the  right  way 
when  a  boy  or  girl  is  walking,  but  instead  the  feet  are  turned  in 
opposite  ways.  And  so  there  are  other  traits  of  objects  similar 
to  these  which  individual  children  find  trouble  with ;  but  this 
does  not  seem  to  hinder  them  from  representing  difficult  objects 
as  a  whole  so  that  a  story  may  be  told. 

It  is  probable  that  children  from  five  to  nine  or  thereabouts 
represent  the  objects  involved  in  illustrating  a  story  about  as 
readily  and  with  as  much  pleasure  as  they  would  in 
repeating  the  story  orally.     After  the  age  of  eight  or  children 
nine,  however,  the  difficulties  of  representing  begin  "^ '"" 

^  ^         <=>        hibited 

to  loom  large,  and  there  is  less  confidence  and  satis- 
faction in  the  work.  To  test  this  especially,  a  number  of  chil- 
dren of  different  ages  were  required  to  draw,  first,  an  object 
or  person  present,  and  then  from  memory  some  object  or  per- 
son well  known  to  them  ;  and  while  not  one  in  ten  children  up 
to  nine  years  of  age  made  any  objection  whatever,  those  beyond 
that  age  had  to  be  encouraged  to  do  the  best  they  could ;    and 


114  MENTAL   DE\  ELOrMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

many  of  them  seemed  quite  overpowered  at  first,  especially  in 
representing  a  boy  or  girl  whom  they  could  see.  It  was  noticed 
also  that  younger  children  rarely  hesitate  in  drawing  from 
memory,  but  go  straight  to  work  with  their  lines  and  dots  to 
make  man,  woman,  child  or  other  object,  while  older  children 
seem  to  be  absorbed  in  meditation  and  do  not  draw  so  readily. 
It  is  true  that  in  older  children's  drawings,  more  characteristics 
and  cjualities  of  objects  are  shown ;  and  it  seems  probable, 
also,  that  qualities  are  perceived  or  remembered  that  require 
deliberation  to  picture,  and  sometimes  the  task  is  too  difficult. 
It  should  be  said  in  this  connection  that  young  children  do  not 
always  represent  in  their  drawings  all  they  remember  of  an 
ordinary  story ;  but  this  must  be  accounted  for,  probably,  by 
their  physical  inability  to  continue  a  great  time  at  any  one  task, 
and  must  not  be  laid  as  a  rule  to  their  consciousness  of  inability 
to  represent  objects.  Children  sometimes  repeat  orally  more 
than  they  told  upon  paper ;  and  they  say,  in  apology,  that  they 
were  in  a  hurry  or  had  no  room,  but  hardly  ever,  except  as  noted 
above,  that  they  did  not  know  how  to  represent  given  objects  or 
situations. 

One  of  the  most  important  studies  made  was  upon  the  dia- 
grams which  the  children  used  to  represent  objects,  the  aim  being 
to  trace  out  the  origin  of  the  peculiarities  characteristic  of 
each  child's  drawings.  The  question  was  asked, — What  has 
led  a  pupil  to  make  this  distinctive  kind  of  diagram  to  repre- 
sent a  given  object?  With  children  from  five  to  eight  or  nine 
the  human  face  is  shown  round  or  oval,  with  two  dots  upon  it 
for  eyes,  something  of  a  scrawl  for  a  nose,  and  one  for  a  mouth. 
But  ears  and  hair  are  not  so  often  found,  while  the  body  is 
either  a  single  line  or  an  irregular  oval,  with  lines  branching  off 
from  it  for  the  limbs.  From  two  to  ten  lines  on  the  end  of  each 
arm  represent  the  fingers  ;  there  is  never  a  hand  as  distinct  from 
an  arm,  and  quite  often  even  the  arms  are  omitted,  but  never 


EXPRESSIONAL   ACTIVITIES:     GRAPTITf,    PTCTORTAL       TT5 

the  lower  limbs,  showing  tliat  the  youngcsl  child  appreciates  the 
need  of  something  to  support  the  body.     In  some  of  the  draw- 
ings of  children  of  this  age  there  are  evidences  of  raiment ;   and 
in  every  case,  with  children  of  all  ages,  girls  are  clothed,  even 
in  drawings  where  the  boy  figures  never  show  any  trace  of  cloth- 
ing.    Occasionally  a  hat  will  be  shown  on  a  boy  when  ^jjg  chUd's 
there    is    no    other    article    of    clothing.     These    are  diagrams 
substantially  the  characteristics  that  always  appear  the  most 
in  a  representation  of  the  human  form,  the  only  ex-   ^^sentmi 

^  '  -'  charac- 

ceptions  being  that  with  some  of  the  older  children  teristics  of 
the  faces  are  made  in  prolile  and  the  relations  and  °  '^'^ 
proportions  between  the  different  parts  of  the  body  are  more 
nearly  in  accord  with  the  facts  in  the  case,  and  the  various  mem- 
bers of  the  body  are  more  clearly  indicated.  Sometimes  a  few 
other  features  are  added,  such  as  buttons  on  the  coat,  feathers 
on  the  girls'  hats,  and  buttons  on  the  shoes;  but  these  are  com- 
paratively rare. 

A  tree  is  at  first  a  vertical  line  with  half  a  dozen  branches 
shooting  out  on  either  side,  and  these  do  not  bear  twigs  and 
leaves  until  the  artist  is  eight  or  nine,  when  a  substantial  trunk 
also  begins  to  appear ;  and  c^uite  often  the  roots  are  as  visible 
as  any  other  part,  and  apparently  of  more  importance.  A 
house  usually  has  a  roof  and  two  sides  shown,  although  in  a 
number  of  cases  the  end  of  the  house  only  is  seen.  There  is 
always  a  chimney  with  smoke  twirling  up  to  the  clouds,  and 
hardly  ever  more  than  one  door,  but  all  the  way  from  one  to  ten 
windows.  Animals  have  long  oval  bodies  with  legs,  tail  and 
head  in  profile ;  and  even  in  drawings  where  the  human  face  is 
always  a  front  view,  animals'  faces  will  be  in  profile.  A  table 
is  a  horizontal  line  supported  by  four  vertical  lines.  Beds  and 
chairs  show  some  diversity,  and  yet  every  one  contains  the 
essential  characteristics.  Windows  have  four  bordering  lines 
with    two  bisecting   lines,    vertical   and  horizontal.     There    is 


it6  MF.NTAI.   OFAELOPIMKNT   AND   EDUCATION 

much  (Jivcrsily  in  the  drawing  ol  a  river,  probably  cxphiiiicd 
by  the  fact  that  many  children  have  never  seen  a  river,  and  the 
only  characteristic  they  know  about,  or  at  least  think  about,  is 
water  ;  and  this  they  })ut  into  square  or  circular  patches,  narrow 
or  broad  areas,  and  various  other  forms. 

Enough  has  been  saifl  to  indicate  that  one  basis  for  the  dia- 
gram made  by  a  child  to  represent  any  object  is  his  com- 
Aiwaysthe  prehension  of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of 
same  that  class  of  objects.     A  child's  diagrams  are,  in  a 

diagram  for  .  . 

any  given  Tude  Way,  pictures  of  the  concepts  he  has  of  the 
object  various  classes  of  things  that  he  tries  to  represent. 

The  young  child  is  not  usually  concerned  with  anything  but 
fundamental  attributes,  and  his  diagrams  are  built  on  these 
alone,  while  with  older  children  it  seems  that  additional  char- 
acteristics are  added  as  they  are  perceived  and  their  relations 
comprehended ;  and  it  is  probably  the  consciousness  of  the 
great  number  of  characteristics  which  inhere  in  every  object 
that  overpowers  the  child  of  twelve  or  thirteen  in  his  effort  to 
represent  them  all  in  their  right  relations. 

A  significant  fact  about  the  diagrams  for  any  object  is  that 
they  are  always  the  same  as  drawn  ])y  any  one  child ;  and 
while  all  display  certain  fundamental  characteristics,  there  are 
still  some  features  in  each  individual  case  which  make  each 
child's  diagrams  peculiar  to  himself.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  account  for  this  individuality  by  inquiring  if  a  child  takes 
some  object  in  his  environment  as  a  model  in  his  representations 
of  that  object  in  any  story.  About  four  hundred  drawings 
were  studied  with  the  cooperation  of  their  authors  to  determine 
whether  the  objects  they  had  represented  had  characteristics 
like  those  which  were  best  known  to  them.  An  opportunity 
to  test  this  was  afforded  by  the  use  of  several  stories  in  which 
the  exterior  as  well  as  the  furnishings  of  houses  were  represented 
a  number  of  times  by  each  artist.     In  no  case  did  an  artist 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:    GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL      117 

attempt  to  reproduce  the  form  of  his  own  house,  although  three 
school  buildings  had  steeples  somewhat  like  the  buildings  where 
the  pupils  attended  school.  The  other  school  buildings  were 
mainly  symbolic  with  no  indication  of  the  influence  of  any  par- 
ticular building  in  their  composition.  The  interiors  of  the  homes 
were  much  alike,  most  of  them  showing  an  upstairs  and  down- 
stairs with  some  appropriate  furniture.  Every  one  had  stairs 
to  reach  the  upper  story.  In  several  instances  stoves  and  the 
entire  length  of  stovepipe  to  the  chimney  were  shown,  and  these 
were  copied  from  their  own  or  a  friend's  house. 

The  evidence  indicates  that  the  child  uses  his  symbols  to 
represent   objects    without    care    to    make   his   representations 
reproduce  the  special  characteristics  of  any  partic- 
ular objects.     Several  series  of  experiments  yielded  charac- 
data  in  favor  of  this  view.     In  the  first  place,  the  t^nsticsof 

'^         '  objects  not 

diagrams  used  in  the  representation  of  any  of  a  num-  included  in 
ber  of  objects  were  traced  throughout  the  whole  of 
the  children's  drawings,  which  extended  over  a  year  with  the 
pupils  in  one  school ;  and  with  many  of  the  most  familiar  ob- 
jects, as  boy,  girl,  tree,  house,  sun,  sky,  stars,  ground,  four- 
footed  animals  and  so  on,  there  was  an  average  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  representations  made  by  each  child.  The  result  of 
this  study  has  shown  that  the  pecuHar  diagrammatical  repre- 
sentation of  any  object  is  strikingly  characteristic  of  a  child 
in  all  of  his  drawings ;  and  any  one  characteristic  that  appears 
in  an  object  in  any  picture  will  be  shown  in  all  the  pictures  of 
that  object  drawn.  Some  children  always  show  roots  to  a 
tree ;  always  have  the  feet  in  human  beings  turned  out  in 
opposite  directions ;  always  have  the  arms  straight  out ;  some 
always  show  the  buttons  on  clothing  though  the  clothing  itself 
is  lacking ;  some  show  the  interior  of  a  house  in  every  picture 
of  that  object  they  make;  some  make  the  sun  in  the  sky,  and 
trees,  grass  and  flowers,  even  when  these  are  not  mentioned  in 


Ii8  MENTAL    DKXELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

a  story.  One  cannot  observe  many  of  the  drawings  of  a  child 
without  seeing  that  his  symbols  are  used  to  represent  classes  of 
objects  without  any  attempt  being  made  as  a  rule  to  indicate 
special  characteristics  of  j)articular  members  of  these  classes. 

To  test  this  somewhat  farther  a  number  of  children  from 
whom  many  representations  of  men  and  boys  in  their  story 
drawings  had  been  secured  were  requested  to  draw  some  boy 
or  man  at  whom  they  could  look.  In  a  number  of  cases  the 
writer  posed  as  a  model,  while  the  children  with  great  earnest- 
ness and  readiness  represented  him  on  paper.  It  was  inter- 
esting to  note  that  no  matter  in  what  position  he  stood  the  same 
picture  would  grow  under  the  artist's  hand  as  he  had  made 
hundreds  of  times  before  in  his  story  representations  with  no 
one  to  look  at.  Young  children  who  made  full  front  views  in 
telling  a  story  would  make  a  front  view  when  they  saw  a  model 
in  profile.  It  seems  otherwise  with  older  children,  though, 
for  the  writer  has  been  unable  to  induce  those  above  ten  to 
represent  readily  a  person  whom  they  could  see,  and  who  stood 
in  a  different  position  from  the  one  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
represent  in  their  story  drawings.  In  addition  to  representing 
an  object  that  was  before  the  child,  a  number  of  drawings  were 
obtained  in  which  some  familiar  playmate  was  represented  from 
memory  by  the  side  of  representations  of  the  writer  in  various 
positions ;  and  the  drawings  were  all  substantially  the  same. 

Another  experiment  along  this  line  was  tried  with  many 
children  between  the  ages  of  five  and  seventeen.  They  were 
required  to  draw  a  chair  or  table  or  other  familiar  object,  and 
care  was  taken  to  place  it  in  such  a  position  that  it  would  be  easy 
to  represent.  Directions  were  given  to  reproduce  the  object, 
and  it  was  not  intimated  in  any  way  that  the  ornamentation 
was  or  was  not  to  be  included.  The  results  showed  that  with 
children  of  five  the  ornamentation  was  never  represented  ;  with 
children  of  eight  exactly  fifty  i)er  cent  of  the  drawings  showed 


EXPRESSIONAL  A(  TIVITIES :     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL       iiQ 


evidence  that  their  authors  tried  to  reproduce  the  ornamenta- 
tion ;  while  with  persons  of  sixteen,  some  of  whom  had  had  but 
little  instruction  in  drawing,  eighty-seven  per  cent  represented 
the  object  as  ornamented.  It  seems  that  young  children  do  not 
regard  details  in  things, 
but  look  upon  them  as 
wholes,  capable  of  be- 
ing put  to  some  prac- 
tical use  ;  and  they  just 
make  marks  to  repre- 
sent parts  of  that  whole. 
It  is  probable  that  the 
young  are  concerned  at 
first  mainly  with  the 
uses  of  things,  and  only 
after  a  time  come  to 
observe  and  appreciate 
detailed  characteris- 
tics ;  and  it  is  the  same 
in  drawing  several  ob- 
jects to  tell  a  story  as 
it  is  with  single  objects. 
Their  interest  seems  to 
be  in  the  total  event 
described  or  narrated, 
and  they  go  to  work 
to  picture  this  thought 
whole,  paying  but  little 
attention  to  the  making  of  individual  things  required  to  por- 
tray the  various  events. 

The  purpose  of  the  last  study  made  was  to  discover  whether 
the  logical  relations  and  proportions  shown  in  drawings  cor- 
respond  closely  with   the  artist's  actual  conception  of   them. 


Fig.  15. — One  child's  illustration  of  "  Johnny-Look- 
in-the-Air."  She  made  six  scenes  to  tell  the  story. 
(See  exercise  5,  page  328.) 


I20 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


In  some  drawinfrs  there  is  nothing  but  confusion  and  disorder 
displayed  throughout,  while  in  others  it  is  easy  to  discover  the 
Are  logical  logical  relations  of  events,  and  the  proportions  do 
relations        not  impress  one  as  being  very  unreal  or  unnatural. 

revealed  in      ....  , 

children's  With  some 
drawings?      children,    it 

seems  that  as  many 
objects  as  are  remem- 
bered are  put  in  their 
drawings  wherever  it 
is  convenient  to  place 
them,  and  only  very 
few  of  the  actual  rela- 
tions existing  in  nature 
are  indicated.  It  is 
always  true,  however, 
that  the  sky  is  the  top- 
most thing  in  a  picture, 
and  the  sun,  moon, 
stars  and  clouds  are 
above  everything 
earthly.  The  ground  is 
always  under  a  house. 
Smoke  always  rises 
from     the    chimneys ; 

and  a  few  other  similar         Fig.   is  a.  —  One  child's  illustration  of  "  Johnny-Look- 
relations    'llw'lVS    seem     in-the-Air."     She  made  six  scenes  to  tell  the  story.     (Sec 
■^  exercise  s,  page  328.) 

to  be  shown  correctly 

even  by  the  youngest  children.  But  if  a  boy  is  walking 
along  the  road  and  eventually  falls  into  a  river,  the  river 
may  be  placed  off  in  the  corner  of  the  ]Mcture  entirely  dis- 
connected from  the  road.  How  the  boy  could  fall  into  it 
is    apparently    never    thought    out    by    the    artist.     People    go 


EXPRESSION AL  ACTIVITIES:    GRAPfllC,   PICTORIAL      121 


into  houses  that  luivc  no  doors  or  windows  and  sloi)s  run  up 
to  the  rear  of  a  house  where  there  is  no  door.  Fishes  are  shown 
living  out  of  water ;  the  sun  appears  lower  than  the  clouds ; 
and  hundreds  of  other  impossible  relations  are  frequently  seen. 

Something  of  the  same 
lack  of  consideration 
of  relations  can  be  ob- 
served in  the  propor- 
tions shown  between 
the  objects  in  a  pic- 
ture. Bears  are  made 
as  large  as  the  house 
they  live  in,  and  a 
dozen  times  larger 
than  the  doors  they  go 
through. 

Some  children  tell  a 
whole  story  in  one  pic- 
ture, while  others  make 
a  number  of  pictures 
to  tell  the  same  story. 
It  has  been  found, 
however,  that  artists 
below  eight  or  nine 
years  of  age  find  no 
difficulty  in  putting 
everything  they  think 
of  into  one  picture. 
Some  work  out  a  portion  of  a  story  logically  and  then 
fill  in  the  rest  of  it  as  best  they  can,  all  in  one  picture. 
In  "The  Three  Bears"  there  is  a  possibility  of  twenty  dif- 
ferent scenes  showing  the  progression  of  events ;  and  this  was 
first  read  to  all  of    the   children   as  a  whole .  and    reproduced 


Fig.  15  b.  — One  child's  illustration  of  "  Johnny-Look- 
in- the- Air."  She  made  six  scenes  to  tell  the  story.  (See 
exercise  5,  page  328.) 


122  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

from  this  reading'.  Oiio  cxccpli(»iially  hrighl  girl  thirUni  years 
of  age  made  thirteen  views  in  a  haU"  hour's  (hawing,  missing 
no  one  in  reguhir  order  as  far  as  she  went.  No  other  drawing 
had  more  than  eight.  This  same  girl  made  seven  views  for 
'■  Jolmny-Look-in-the-Air "  ;  and  it  may  lie  mentioned  that  she 
was  known  to  all  of  her  teachers  as  the  brightest  i)Ui)il  in  the 
class.  But  of  all  the  children  studied,  very  few  made  more  than 
one  drawing  to  represent  "The  Three  Bears,"  while  a  number 
made  two  to  tell  the  story  of  '"  Johnny-Look-in-the-Air,"  and 
two  or  three  to  tell  other  stories  that  had  from  six  to  fif- 
teen distinct  scenes  in  them.  It  can  be  said  in  general  that 
with  children  up  to  eight  or  nine  years  of  age,  a  whole  story 
is  crowded  into  one  or  two  pictures,  which  makes  it  in  some 
measure  illogical  and  confused. 

It  would  perhaps  be  too  hazardous  to  say  that  the  general 
logical  relations  and  proportions  expressed  in  a  drawing  are  a 
good  index  to  a  child's  mental  operations  and  conceptions ; 
but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  a  teacher  who  has  had  charge  of  a 
child  for  some  time  will,  on  seeing  his  drawings,  say  in  almost 
every  instance  that  she  would  expect  such  results  as  were  se- 
cured. Here,  for  instance,  is  a  series  of  drawings  in  which 
there  is  utter  lack  of  logical  relations ;  an  object  is  represented 
as  it  happens  to  come  into  mind  without  regard  to  any  other 
object  in  the  story.  The  artist  will  be  found  to  be  either  men- 
tally or  physically  weak,  or  very  restless,  or  constantly  absorbed 
in  what  is  going  on  about  him.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chil- 
dren who  impress  their  teachers  as  being  bright,  and  who  always 
show  interest  in  what  they  are  doing,  usually  make  drawings 
that  preserve  the  logical  arrangement  of  events  and  objects, 
and  in  which  the  proportions  are  fairly  good. 

It  may  be  said  that  a  lack  of  right  proportions  in  the  ob- 
jects in  a  child's  drawing  is  not  necessarily  indicative  of  his 
inability  to  conceive  the  true  proportions  of  these  things,  but 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL      123 

that  objects  are  drawn  out  of  proportion  to  indicate  the  relative 
importance  which  they  have  in  his  mind.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  this  is  true  in  some  cases ;  but  in  others  it  is  hardly 
true,  as  when  a  table  is  made  twice  as  tall  as  the  girl  who  is  to 
eat  from  it.  With  some  children  only  one  thing  is  held  in  the 
mind  at  a  time,  and  when  this  passes  out,  the  next  object  takes 
entire  possession  of  consciousness,  so  that  when  a  picture  is 
completed  the  several  items  are  out  of  proportion  and  out  of 
sequence.  The  factor  of  temperament,  whether  nervous  or 
calm,  easily  discouraged  or  persevering,  and  so  on,  has  an  im- 
portant influence  upon  a  child's  logical  thinking.  It  deter- 
mines whether  ideas  or  pictures  come  and  go  without  much  power 
of  restraint  and  control,  or  whether  they  linger  in  the  mind 
and  are  not  dispelled  every  instant  by  some  distracting  in- 
fluence. In  all  the  drawings  a  record  was  kept  of  the  order  in 
which  each  object  was  made,  and  in  some  it  was  noticed  just 
how  and  in  what  sequence  the  parts  of  each  object  were  repre- 
sented. In  some  cases  studied,  children  would  build  a  house 
and  then  put  ground  under  it ;  or  they  would  make  the  furni- 
ture of  a  house  and  put  the  sides  and  roof  around  it  after- 
ward. Quite  a  number  of  the  children  observed  made  the  sky 
first,  and  then  seemed  to  fill  in  everything  else  as  they  happened 
to  think  of  it.  One  restless  girl  without  much  power  of  appli- 
cation, but  possessing  some  native  brightness,  proceeded  this 
way  in  making  a  human  being:  she  first  made  a  round  head, 
and  then  a  loop  for  a  body ;  then  one  leg  and  dressed  it  with 
pantaloons ;  then  she  made  the  ground  for  the  leg  to  stand 
on ;  then  she  made  the  other  leg  and  dressed  it  with  panta- 
loons and  made  the  ground  for  it  to  stand  on.  Then  she  made 
the  arms  and  dressed  them.  Next  she  put  in  the  eyes,  ears,  nose 
and  mouth  in  the  order  given.  This  illogical  method  of  pro- 
cedure corresponded  in  a  way  to  her  incoherent  manner  of 
thinking  in  all  her  studies. 


124  MENTAL   DEXELOi'MENT   :\KD    EDUCAllON 


Fig.  i6.  —  Illustration  for  "  Johnny-Look-in-the-Air-"  (Sec  exercise  s,  p.  328) 


Fig.   17.  —  Illustration  for  "Johnny-Look  iu-thc-.Mr"'  from  a  child  artist.     (See 
exercise  s.  page  328.) 


EXPRESSIONAL   ACTIVITIES:     GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL       125 

Young  clnldrcn  and  often  older  ones  experience  difficulty  in 

portraying  a  special  kind  of  relation,  as  for  instance  a  man 

riding  a  horse.     They  can  show  people  and  articles  Difficulty 

of   furniture   in   a   house    readily   enough ;     one   can  »"  rep- 
resenting 
simply  look  through  the  walls  of  the  house  and  see  special 

them.  The  child  knows  they  are  there,  and  he  does  '■®****°°^ 
not  reflect  that  there  is  any  obstruction  which  would  prevent 
an  observer  on  the  outside  from  seeing  them.  Again,  he  does 
not  hesitate  in  showing  the  seeds  in  the  middle  of  an  apple  or 
the  buttons  on  the  back  of  a  girl's  dress  when  she  is  being  viewed 
from  the  front.  When  he  draws  a  human  being  in  profile  he 
shows  the  arm  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  body  without  any 
hesitation.  But  when  he  tries  to  place  a  man  on  a  horse  the 
relation  troubles  him.  The  usual  method  is  to  draw  the  horse 
in  profile  and  then  to  draw  the  man  equipped  with  all  his  mem- 
bers up  above  the  horse.  One  can  look  through  the  horse  and 
see  the  man's  ofif  leg.  The  child  is  so  engrossed  with  making 
each  object  separately  that  he  does  not  consider  their  natural 
relations.  By  the  time  he  reaches  the  age  of  nine  or  ten,  how- 
ever, he  realizes  that  the  man  must  be  put  down  on  the  back  of 
the  horse,  but  almost  without  exception  he  will  show  both  the 
man's  legs.  And  so  with  all  situations  of  this  character ;  up  to 
the  age  of  nine  or  thereabouts  an  artist  will  represent  a  unity 
composed  of  several  objects  brought  together  in  special  rela- 
tions, as*when  several  people  are  riding  in  an  automobile,  by 
making  his  diagram  for  each  object  as  though  it  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  other  objects  and  so  did  not  need  to  be  modi- 
fied in  any  respect. 

It  remains  for  us  now  to  inquire  whether  the  child  will  on 
his  own  initiative  and  without  instruction  attain  a  high  degree 
of  proficiency  in  the  use  of  drawing  as  a  medium  of  expression 
in  the  same  way  that  on  his  own  initiative  he  will  acquire  the 
spoken  language  he  hears  in  his  environment.     It  may  be  said 


126  MENTAL   DEVELOI'MHNT   AM)    IIDUCATION 

witliDUl  (jualilicalion  that  the  inchxickial  docs  not  feci  the  iicod 

of  enlarging  and    perfecting    his    drawing    vocabuhiry,    so   to 

speak,  as   he   does   his  spoken   vocabulary.     A   ten- 

acquixed*       ycar-old    child    who    hears   a    new    word    within    his 

more  easily    range  of  Comprehension  and  execution  will  practice  it 
and 

naturally  until  he  masters  it.  As  he  develops,  he  will  acquire 
drawing  ^'^*^'  ''"r^i^i^tic  usage  in  his  environment,  though  he 
may  not  have  any  instruction  in  regard  to  the 
matter.  But  while  a  four-year-old  child  will  largely  on  his 
own  initiative  acquire  the  diagrams  which  have  been  described 
in  the  preceding  paragraphs  if  he  sees  others  use  them,  still  a 
twelve-year-old  pupil  will  not  continue  to  master  drawing 
as  a  more  perfect  medium  of  expression  even  though  he  ob- 
serves artists  employ  drawing  to  convey  a  wide  range  of  ex- 
perience. Indeed,  the  twelve-year-old  child  if  let  alone  will  as  a 
rule  abandon  drawing  as  a  medium  of  expression.  He  will  not 
be  satisfied  with  the  diagrams  which  served  him  well  enough 
in  his  earliest  years  and  he  will  not  of  his  own  accord  acquire 
more  perfect  modes.  Language  is  a  far  more  ''natural"  mode 
of  expression  for  the  child  than  is  drawing.  He  will  learn  com- 
plex forms  of  linguistic  expression  without  any  suggestion 
or  direction  from  the  people  about  him  ;  but  he  will  not  ac- 
quire complex  modes  of  graphic  exi)ression  without  great  effort. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  large  proportion  of  adults  never  make 
use  of  drawing  in  expressing  experience  of  any  kii!d.  Even 
those  who  have  had  instruction  in  it  abandon  it  because  of 
their  feeling  that  they  cannot  portray  what  they  see  or  what 
they  have  in  their  minds  with  sufficient  fluency  and  accuracy 
to  make  the  use  of  drawing  of  value. 

In  order  that  the  individual  may  continue  to  find  his  draw- 
ing a  serviceable  medium  of  expression  as  he  develops  into  the 
teens,  he  must  above  all  else  acquire  the  ability  to  give  atten- 
tion to  the  form  values  and  the  color  values  in  the  objects  he 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:     GRAPHIC,    PICTORIAL       127 

wishes  to  portray,  and  he  must  become  able  to  see  them  in 
their  relations  and  activities  with  the  eye,  as  it  were,  rather 
than  with  the  mind.  If  a  novice  wishes  to  portray  ^j^^ 
a  human  face,  for  instance,  he  is  likely  to  be  over-  psychology 
whelmed  with  the  difficulty,  and  he  may  think  his  im- 
potence is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  has  not  mastered  the  technique 
necessary  to  represent  this  object ;  but  in  reality  his  trouble  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  does  not  see  the  form  or  color  char- 
acteristics of  the  human  face  clearly  or  vividly  enough  to  re- 
produce them.  He  is  not  concerned  primarily  with  the  form  and 
color  values  of  the  face ;  he  is  concerned  rather  with  what  these 
values  denote.  He  does  not  and  cannot  give  attention  solely 
to  form  and  color  data.  He  thinks  only  of  the  character  or 
temperament  of  the  individual  as  expressed  through  form  and 
color  data.  Form  and  color  play  a  very  minor  role  in  the  total 
impression  of  the  human  face  which  the  novice  gains.  And 
when  he  comes  to  represent  the  face,  it  is  what  he  knows  about 
it  and  not  what  he  actually  sees  in  a  visual  way  that  stands 
forth  in  consciousness,  and  so  he  cannot  portray  it. 


CHAPTER   VTI 
THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF   COORDINATION 

There  are  a  few  simple  coordinated  movements  of  which  the 
infant  is  capable  from  the  beginning.  Put  your  finger  in  his 
Cobrdina-  ^nouth  and  note  how  facile  and  definite  are  the  coordi- 
tionin  nations  of  tongue,  lips  and  jaw  involved  in  sucking. 

Again,  the  child  at  birth  has  some  control  over  his  vocal 
apparatus,  enough  at  any  rate  so  that  he  can  produce  one  or 
two  vowel  sounds.  He  has,  too,  become  possessed  of  the  ability 
to  manage  his  arms  to  the  extent  that  he  can  extend  and  con- 
tract them ;  and  he  can  grasp  an  object  placed  under  his  fingers 
and  convey  it  with  considerable  accuracy  to  the  goal  of  most 
of  his  movements  at  this  time,  —  his  mouth ;  and  after  more  or 
less  awkward  fumbling  the  fist  usually  finds  its  way  into  the 
mouth.  When  the  hand  comes  in  contact  with  the  skin  any- 
where in  the  neighborhood  of  the  mouth,  reflex  movements  are 
set  up  which  have  for  their  aim  to  bring  the  stimulating  object 
into  the  mouth.  Burk  thinks  this  performance  is  at  first  a  mere 
accident,  while  Preyer,  Miss  Shinn,  and  others  regard  it  as  a 
quite  definitely  established  coordination. 

While  there  are  these  few  relatively  simple  coordinations  of 
which  the  infant  is  capable  at  the  start,  still  the  inventory  of 
the  entire  list  is  easily  made.  Practically  the  whole  business 
of  becoming  coordinated  in  adjustment  to  a  complex  environ- 
ment lies  before  the  individual.  In  the  beginning  most  of  his 
energy  seems  to  be  expended  in  clenching  his  fingers,  in  keep- 
ing the  muscles  of  his  arms,  hands,  and  legs  constrained,  and 
in  moving  them  back  and  forth  in  one  plane.     There  is  Httle 

128 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  COORDINATION  129 

amplitude,  little  variety,  and  but  slight  complexity  in  these 
first  movements.  They  are  mainly  general,  in  the  sense  that 
the  biceps,  for  example,  in  the  manual  series,  are  vigorously 
energized,  but  the  very  tips  of  the  fingers  cannot  be  employed 
with  any  success  in  fine  coordinations.  Note  the  manner  in 
which  an  infant  will  grasp  a  pencil,  for  instance,  or  a  saucer, 
and  it  will  be  appreciated  that  his  will  has  not  yet  gained  control 
of  the  tips  of  his  fingers  so  that  they  can  be  utilized  in  the  execu- 
tion of  tasks  requiring  precise  coordination.  The  infant  appears 
to  have  almost  as  good  use  of  his  toes  as  he  does  of  his  fingers, 
and  this  is  worthy  of  remark,  since  the  skill  in  managing  the 
toes  is  lost  in  part  as  development  proceeds,  while  finger-skill 
constantly  increases.  Again,  though  the  infant  can  respire 
perfectly,  still  he  has  but  slight  management  of  his  lips,  tongue, 
teeth,  and  palate  in  the  modification  of  the  expired  air  so  as  to 
produce  consonantal  sounds. 

How  does  the  child  acquire  manual  dexterity,  by  wliich  is 
meant  ability  to  manipulate  with  precision  any  segment  of  the 
manual  system  in  coordination  with  any  other  segment,  ^j^^  Q^^^ 
or  any  part  of  the  organism,  or  any  external  object?  stages  in 
The  first  sign  of  advance  is  seen  in  what  may  be  re-  manual 
garded  as  a  sort  of  relaxation  of  the  original  biceptual  ^extenty 
tension ;   the  biceps  seem  now  not  to  be  stimulated  so  vigorously 
and  constantly  as  formerly.     Some  observers  have  attempted 
to  be  precise  as  to  the  hour  when  changes  of  this  sort  occur, 
but  this  appears  to  be  a  quite  impossible  task,  since  these  really 
have  no  absolute  beginning.     They  are  phases  of  a  continuous 
process  of  differentiation  and  of  developing  complexity.     Progress 
along  this  line  is  made  with  unequal  rates  of  speed  by  different 
children.     In  the  development  of  arm-,  hand-  and  finger-skill, 
H.    showed   considerable   advancement    ])y    the   seventh   week. 
By  this  time  she  was  operating  the  whole-arm  system  during 
most  of  her  waking  hours ;    but  the  original  rigidity  was  less 


ijo  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

apparent,  the  lingers  were  opening  and  closing  constantly,  and 

the  thumb  began  to  play  a  part  in  adjustment  to  the  fingers. 

Until  the  seventh  week,  the  thumb  had  not  reported  for  duty ; 

it  kept  itself  hidden  most  of  the  time  in  the  palm  of  the  hand, 

a  phenomenon  which  many  observers  have  commented  upon. 

But   M.   developed   much   more   slowly    than   H.     When  she 

reached  her  seventh  week  she  had  not  traveled  a  great  distance 

from  the  starting  point.     S.,  a  boy,  appeared  to  be  at  least  a 

week  or  two  behind  his  sister,  and  V.  was  later  still.     Of  course, 

lacking  the   means  of   exact  measurement   it   is    impossible  to 

determine  rates  of  progress  with  absolute  precision. 

As  the  child  develops  he  constantly  gains  greater  flexibility 

and  efficiency  of  hand-  and  finger-movement  and  greater  ampli- 

The  urge       tudc   in    the   employment   of   the    arm    as   a   whole. 

of  develop-     There  is  a  gradual  increase  in  the  action  of  forearm, 
ment  is  ® 

toward  the  wrist  and  fingers.  The  wave  of  development  moves 
emi  es  constantly  outward,  —  toward  the  extremities. 
This  does  not  imply,  of  course,  that  there  is  not  continuous 
development  all  along  the  line ;  it  means  simply  that  at  the 
start  the  most  accessory  members,  as  the  tips  of  the  fingers 
and  the  tip  of  the  tongue,  function  the  least  effectively,  consider- 
ing what  they  are  designed  to  accomplish,  and  so  development 
has  the  most  to  accomplish  in  the  outermost  coordinations. 
What  progress  in  this  respect  has  the  child  made  by  the  sixth 
month?  Preyer  reports  that  his  son  showed  much  deftness 
before  his  seventh  month  in  picking  up  shreds  of  paper  from  the 
floor;  but  the  term  "much  deftness''  is  quite  indefinite.  Bits 
of  paper  may  be  taken  between  the  thumb  and  fingers  without 
very  precise  control  of  the  most  accessory  segments  of  the  manual 
apparatus.  As  a  rule,  children  of  this  age  grasp  at  everything 
they  see.  They  pick  up  smallish  objects  wherever  they  find 
them,  but  their  adjustments  really  seem  very  crude  and  in- 
effectual when  measured  by  the  adult  standard,  which  is  the 


THE  DEN'ELOPMENT  OF  COORDINATION  131 

only  proper  basis  of  comparison.  It  does  not  serve  our  purpose 
here  to  compare  the  child's  present  skill  with  his  condition  at 
the  very  beginning ;  nor  should  we  accept  the  evidence  of  the 
mother  who  marvels  that  her  child  should  l)e  able  to  seize  hold 
of  anything  by  the  seventh  month.  Her  wonder  and  admira- 
tion are  likely  to  lead  her  to  Ijelievc  that  he  executes  his  tasks 
with  as  much  delicacy  and  deftness  as  she  does  herself. 


Fig.   18.  —  Note  the  effort  required  for  some  of  the  children  to  perform  the  coordinated 
task  demanded  of  them.     (See  exercise  13,  page  331.) 

The  child  at  six  months,  or  a  year,  or  even  two  or  five  years, 
is  long  in  gross  muscle  and  short  in  delicate  coordinations.  He 
expends  more  force  in  the  performance  of  such  a  task  as  threading 
a  needle,  for  example,  than  an  adult  does.  One  may  see  this 
principle  illustrated  in  the  tension  of  muscles  that  should  remain 
at  rest  when  the  child  applies  himself  to  delicate  tasks  of  any 
sort.  In  all  his  coordinated  activities  in  the  early  years,  the 
characteristic  which  impresses  one  most  markedly  is  the  amount 


132 


MENTAL   DEVLLUl'MEM    AND   EDLCAllON 


oi  energy  which  is  c'X[>ciulc(l  on  ihcni.  Even  the  caresses  of  a 
year-old  child,  which  he  intends  doubtless  to  be  gentle,  are  often 
annoying  because  of  their  vigor.  When  he  is  attempting  acts 
that  should  be  done  tenderly,  as  touching  his  father's  eyes  in 
play,  he  jabs  into  them  as  though  he  had  little  control  over  his 
biceps.  Most  mothers  who  have  tender  babies  in  a  house  where 
there  arc  vigorous  five-year-old   Ijoys  have  occasion   to  learn 


Fig.   10.  —  Gardening  requires  the  use  of  the  large  muscles  principally.     (See  exercise  13, 

page  331.) 

that  the  latter  tend  always  to  express  their  kindly  feelings  most 
energetically  and  crudely. 

As  the  months  pass  we  may  note  that  coordination  increases 
and  mere  muscularity  decreases.  If  one  tests  a  child  of  three 
years  at  threading  a  needle  with  a  moderate-sized  eye,  it  will 
be  noticed  that  the  fingers  become  very  rigid  and  soon  tension 
will  be  observed  in  the  face  and  elsewhere  in  the  body.  Scissors 
are  used  very  badly  at  this  period,  and  writing  with  an  ordinary 
pencil  causes  excessive  tensions.  In  the  use  of  the  knife  and 
fork  and  spoon  at  table  the  undue  prominence  of  the  biceps  in 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  COORDINATION  133 

the  necessary  adjustments  is  noticeable.  It  is  not  a  deficiency 
in  crude  strength  that  makes  the  child  incapable ;  he  is  simply 
unable  to  use  properly  what  he  possesses  in  the  management  of 
a  complex  mechanism.  His  force  is  not  rightly  distributed  and 
correlated  throughout  the  parts  of  the  whole  apparatus  employed. 
A  child  of  four  or  five  years  endeavoring  to  use  tools  illustrates 
the  principle  of  development  under  consideration.  S.  at  three 
can  put  a  good  deal  of  force  into  his  experiments  with  a  hammer, 
but  he  cannot  hit  a  nail  on  the  head  once  in  ten  trials.  He 
must  be  watched  by  his  elders  when  he  is  pounding  to  see  that 
he  does  not  bruise  his  fingers.  V.  at  five  has  much  greater 
precision,  though  compared  with  H.  at  eight  he  is  still  crude  and 
clumsy ;  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  the  older  one  often  makes 
merry  at  his  expense,  and  he  in  turn  rallies  his  younger  brother. 
When  S.  is  permitted  to  wind  a  watch,  he  puts  more  force  into 
the  act  than  is  required.  Also  when  he  attempts  to  imitate 
H.  in  her  painting  lessons  he  apparently  thinks  the  thing  to  do 
is  to  put  all  the  muscle  he  can  into  the  manipulation  of  the 
brush ;  he  is  a  mere  dauber  because  of  his  lack  of  adjustment 
of  force  to  the  task  to  be  performed.  H.  shows  considerable 
delicacy  in  her  use  of  the  brush,  but  still  her  work  very  patently 
lacks  the  fine  touch  which  is  made  possible  through  the  more 
perfect  coordinations  of  her  teacher.  When  H.  attempts  to 
do  very  fine  work,  one  result  is  seen  in  marked  tension  of  fingers 
and  constraint  of  muscles  in  the  face  and  the  whole  body.  H.'s 
teacher,  though,  handles  the  brush  for  long  periods  every  day 
with  great  ease  and  apparently  with  little  fatigue.  Experiments 
relating  to  the  development  of  precision  establish  the  principle 
that  throughout  the  maturing  process  there  is  continual  im- 
provement, except  for  an  apparent  temporary  arrest  at  puberty, 
in  the  ability  to  control  the  motor  mechanism  so  that  tasks 
requiring  exact  control  and  precision  can  be  performed  more 
and  more  satisfactorily  as  the  years  go  on. 


^34 


MENTAL   DEVELOPxMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


What  has  been  said  regarding  the  development  of  coordination 
in  the  upper  limbs  applies  in  principle  to  the  development  of 
_.  the  lower  limbs.     At  the  start  the  legs  are  kept  in  a 

develop-        tcnse  position  with  the  soleus  muscles  strongly  ener- 
pedai  gized.     The    movements    are    automatic,    and    in    a 

control  plane  up  and  down,  as   Perez,  Trettien  and   others 

have   observed.     Development   progresses   outward   here    as   it 
does  in  the  arm  and  hand. 


I  I';.    20.  — Tasks  such  as  arc  shown  in  the  picture  do  not  rcciuire  hi^;hly  coordinated 
activities.     (See  exercise  13,  page  331.) 

In  their  lirst  essays  at  walking  children  use  their  legs  as  if 
they  were  jointless.  There  is  little  if  any  flexion  or  coordina- 
tion of  the  different  segments  with  one  another.  Rigidity 
is  the  word  that  describes  these  early  movements.  It  appears 
impossible  for  the  child  to  energize  both  fundamental  and 
accessory  muscles  in  sequence  as  they  are  required  in  order  to 
execute  the  complex  act  of  walking  in  the  most  economical  and 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OV  COORDINATION  135 

effective  manner.  This  phenomenon  is  seen  again  when  a  young 
child  attempts  to  kick  a  football.  At  first  the  toe  is  moved 
as  though  it  were  at  the  end  of  a  pole ;  the  Hmb  is  swung  as  an 
unsegmented  whole,  and  in  this  way  the  toe  is  brought  in  contact 
with  the  object. 

Turning  now  to  the  development  of  coordination  in  speech, 
we  find  the  same  general  plan  followed.  The  infant's  first 
sound  contains  but  a  note  or  two,  as  a  or  possibly  di'i.  ^^e 
These  notes  can  be  produced  with  comparatively  deveiop- 
slight  coordination  of  the  vocal  mechanism.  The  coordination 
cords  must  he  tightened  up  a  bit  and  the  expired  air  "^  speech 
directed  upon  them ;  but  the  infant  cannot  modify  the  current 
of  sound  thus  produced,  nor  can  he  even  modify  the  pitch  or 
quality  of  the  current  itself.  His  repertoire  is  limited  to  a 
vowel  note  or  two.  But  by  the  time  he  has  attained  his  fifth 
month  he  has  made  some  progress  toward  extending  his  range 
of  vowel  production.  There  are  beginning  to  appear  also  certain 
consonantal  sounds,  those  made  by  the  lips  acting  on  the  current 
of  sound.  Most  observers  have  found  that  the  consonants 
denoted  by  m,  p,  b  and  d  are  the  earliest  to  be  executed,  but 
in  the  very  beginning  even  these  consonants  are  not  produced 
in  a  clear-cut,  distinct  way. 

When  the  child  begins  to  imitate  the  language  he  hears  about 
him,  he  reproduces  the  simplest  sounds  first,  those  easiest  made; 
and  speaking  generally,  he  comes  last  of  all  to  those  combinations 
that  demand  the  most  difficult  coordinations.  A  long  combina- 
tion requiring  for  its  execution  the  skillful  manipulation  of  the 
vocal  mechanism  will  either  be  left  until  very  late,  or  it  will 
be  mutilated,  often  beyond  recognition.  The  simplest  element 
in  it  will  be  picked  out  and  reproduced  ;  or  easy  combinations 
will  be  substituted  for  the  difficult  ones.  Thus,  what  will  be 
reproduced  as  hd:  here,  as  he:  nail,  as  ;/(/,•  Ihis,  as  dt/:  there, 
iisdd;  that,  2i^  ddjf;  and    so  on.     For  where   is  that  ^   the   child 


136  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCAllON 

siiys  fa  dal  ^  for  noise,  he  says  noi ;  for  Harriet,  he  says  Hdwi. 
This  is  the  type  of  very  much  that  is  found  in  children's  use 
of  words.  The  principle  is  seen  again  in  the  pronunciation  of  a 
word  like  some.  The  child  makes  it  slum.  The  motor  i)rocess 
required  to  produce  sh  before  u  is  simi)lc  as  compared  with  that 
recjuired  to  produce  5  in  some.  So  again  horse  becomes  Iiorsliic, 
apple  becomes  appU,  get  becomes  geh,  farther  becomes  fddy, 
basket  becomes  bdky,  university  becomes  ilvtity,  and  so  on  ad 
libitum. 

In  the  beginning  the  child  universally  omits  //'s  on  the  end 
of  words,  as  when  ball  is  made  bdbd,  tell  becomes  teh;  fall,  fdy 
and  the  like.  Again,  the  sound  denoted  by  r  is  very  frequently 
omitted,  as  when  broken  becomes  bokcn,  rock  becomes  ok,  for 
becomes  fdh,  etc.  Th  is  quite  universally  omitted  from  words 
like  that  and  this.  Ng  is  always  omitted.  When  the  following 
combinations  arc  followed  by  other  sounds,  they  are  almost 
universally  omitted  or  something  put  in  their  place,  —  st,  ck, 
nd,  rd.  sk,  ok,  rii,  ough,  fc,  ft,  fr,  th,  ve,  nk,  ght,  fl  and  others  of 
like  character.  Further,  certain  sounds  are  omitted  when  they 
occur  in  combinations  at  the  beginning  or  the  end  of  a  word 
which  makes  their  production  difficult,  though  they  may  be 
pronounced  in  the  middle  parts  of  words. 

The  principle  of  development  here  in  question  is  further 
illustrated  when  the  child  has  learned  the  use  of  some  words 
The  prin-  ^nd  has  begun  to  construct  sentences.  If  several 
cipie  words  apply  to  diflfercnt  objects  that  have  some  com- 

illustrated  ^  ^    ■'  ,        •" 

in  the  mon  rcscmblance,  he  will  choose  the  easiest  word  for 

use  of^  them  all.     For  instance,  he  says  '' suppy'^  for  break- 

sentences  jast,  dinner,  and  supper.  Again,  he  will  omit  words 
that  will  make  his  coordinations  intricate.  ^' Mamma,  fa  go?'^ 
means  "Mamma,  where  are  you  going?"  and  these  instances 
are  typical  of  much  of  the  child's  linguistic  activity  during  the 
first  three  or  four  years.     Of  course,  children  fiiffer  greatly  in 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CO()RDINATION  137 

the  rapidity  with  vvhicli  c()in})lcx  coordinations  arc  attained,  but 
they  must  all  pass  along  the  same  route,  though  at  different 
rates  of  speed.  S.  was  as  far  along  in  the  mastery  of  language 
difficulties  at  twenty-one  months  as  V.  or  M.  were  at  three  and 
one-half  years,  but  he  seemed  not  to  skip  any  of  the  stages ;  he 
simply  ran  the  course  faster. 

While  the  evolution  of  coordination  proceeds  from  the  simple 
and  fundamental  to  the  complex  and  accessory,  in  dissolution 
just  the  reverse  course  is  pursued.     Disturbances  of 
coordination  are  first  manifested  in  the  finest  and  of  losing 
most  complex  movements.     Mercier  has  pointed  out  tkmsin 
that  the  most  complex  and  elaborate  processes  fail  degenera- 
first  and  the  most  fundamental  remain  to  the  last. 
Wilson  has  called  attention  to  this  in  discussing  the  phenomena 
occurring  in  alcohoHc   dissolution.     Degeneration  begins  with 
the    highest,    most    coordinated    movements    of    expression, — 
with  purposive  movements,  —  and  travels  downward  to  those 
which  are  automatic.     The  voice  becomes  shaky,  and  control 
over  the  tongue  and  lips  is  gradually  lost.     The  drunkard  returns 
over  the  route  he  went  up  in  the  acquisition  of  speech,  passing 
through  in  reverse  order  the  stages  of  incoordination  which  he 
outgrew  in  childhood.     "If  the  tremors  descend  to  the  limbs, 
they  first  invade  the  fingers  (not  the  thumbs) ,  spreading  abroad 
till  the  whole  hand  shakes,  and  creeping  up  the  arms.     The  lower 
limbs  grow  tremulous  last  of  all,  their  movements  being  largely 
automatic."     Mercier    thus    describes    the    process    of    general 
undoing  under  the  influence  of  alcohol.     Ribot,  too,  has  em- 
phasized this  law  of  decay  in  will,  whatever  may  be  the  cause, 
from  the  highest  and  most  complex  to  the  lowest  and  simplest ; 
from  the  unstable  and  most  organized  to  the  stable  and  least 
organized.     Degeneration  pursues  a  course  directly  the  reverse 
of  development ;  it  is  a  continuous  retrogression  from  the  highly 
to  the  relatively  slightly  coordinated  movements. 


13^ 


MKX'IAL   DFA'ELOPMENT   AND    I.DUCATION 


c   to 


3    o 
CT  K 


THE  DEXELOPMEN  r  OF  COORDINATION  139 

In  senescent  dissolution  the  liner  and  more  complex  activities 
are  the  earliest  to  become  affected.  The  first  evidence  of  a 
motor  character  of  the  oncoming  of  senescence  is  seen  in  a  lack 
of  precise  control  of  the  lingers.  The  old  man  becomes  shaky 
in  his  writing.  Then  his  articulation  becomes  less  precise. 
And  as  age  proceeds  the  coordination  of  all  the  accessory  mem- 
bers is  gradually  lost.  But  the  vital  functions  may  keep  their 
vigor  unabated.  When  the  old  man  is  wholly  unable  to  care 
for  himself  he  may  still  eat  vigorously  and  enjoy  his  food.  He 
has  indeed  returned  to  his  second  childhood.  Again,  in  death 
from  lack  of  nutrition  of  a  person  of  any  age  dissolution  proceeds 
from  the  extremities  inward.  One  can  observe  cases  of  this  sort 
where  he  can  see  a  reversal  step  by  step  of  the  developmental 
processes,  until  the  individual  is  brought  back  to  the  starting 
point,  where  all  is  gone  but  certain  reflexes,  as  when  an  object 
is  put  into  the  palm  of  the  hand  it  will  be  seized  reflexly  and 
carried  to  the  mouth,  —  just  such  a  phenomenon  as  may  be 
seen  in  the  newborn  child. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INfflBITION :  THE 
NEUROLOGICAL  AND  PSYCHOLOGICAL  VIEW 

It  is  a  matter  of  everyday  observation  that  the  typical 
young  child  gives  way  easily  to  his  impulses.  His  tears  flow 
Children's  ^^^^^Y  upon  slight  provocation  ;  he  becomes  hilarious 
lack  of  in-     ovcr  mere    trifles ;  he  gabbles   incessantly   when    he 

hibition  111  .         .  .,  ^         n-         • 

should  maintain  silence ;  he  flics  into  a  passion 
whenever  he  is  obstructed  in  his  undertakings ;  and  one  might 
mention  a  long  list  of  similar  excesses.  The  chief  prob- 
lem of  most  parents  seems  to  be  to  repress  these  exuberant 
and  often  irritating  expressions  of  the  young.  How  frequently 
one  hears  a  mother  say  of  her  boys  and  a  teacher  say  of  her 
young  pupils,  —  "They  will  drive  me  to  distraction!"  Com- 
pared with  ourselves  our  children  seem  uncontrolled,  heedless, 
and  even  Avillful.  A  sensitive  or  easily  disturbed  adult  or  one 
who  craves  quiet  may  expect  little  peace  or  comfort  in  the  com- 
pany of  children  from  two  to  ten,  who  have  been  indulged 
in  their  spontaneity.  They  will  be  continually  striving  to 
perform  tasks  of  an  inventive  or  original  character  or  in  emulation 
of  their  elders,  for  the  accomplishment  of  which  they  lack  size 
or  strength  or  ingenuity,  and  they  will  use  every  means  at  their 
command  to  obtain  help  from  those  who  can  aid  them.  They 
will  be  running  here  and  there,  jumping,  climbing,  pounding, 
throwing,  shouting,  handling  everything  novel  within  reach,  and 
teasing  one  another  and  every  living  thing  from  which  they  can 

secure  lively  reactions. 

140 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION 


141 


Aristotle  tells  us  that  the 
child  craves  exercise  of  all  his 
powers,  and  the  same  view 
in  substance  is  presented  by 
Plutarch,  Quintilian,  Rous- 
seau, Locke,  Pestalozzi,  Froe- 
bel,  Spencer,  and  a  host  of 
modern  writers  such  as  Preyer, 
Dewey,  Baldwin,  Compayre, 
Sully,  Hall,  Moore  and  others. 
As  Baldwin  puts  it,^  ".  .  .' 
the  child  acts,  and  act  it  must, 
on  the  first  suggestion  which 
has  the  faintest  meaning  in 
terms  of  its  sensations  of 
movement."  Dresslar  ^  pre- 
sents the  same  view  in  dif- 
ferent terms,  —  "External 
stimulus  is  immediately  an- 
swered by  motor  activity, 
even  though  at  first  these  re- 
sponses are  uncontrolled  and 
purposeless."  Bell  kept  a 
record  of  the  activities  of  his 
two  children  for  a  single  day, 
and  speaking  of  the  speech 

activity    of    his    five-year-old  ^^^-  ^^-^  ^'^'^^  ^i'^w  of  right  cerebral  hem- 

,  .,j     ,                       „      /^TTTi            T  'sphere.   A,    normal    adult;     B,    adult    idiot; 

child     he    says  :  •*          When    I  C,  new-bom  child.    (From  Mercier's  Sanity  and 

counted  the   total  number  of  ^"'""^'y-^     (See  exercise  u,  page  339) 

words  which  the  child  had  used  (in  one  day),  I  was  not  surprised 
to  find  them  footing  up  to  14,996.     As  to  the  other  activities 

^Mental  Development,  Methods  and  Processes,  p.  5. 
2  Ped.  Sem.,  Dec,  1901.  » Independent,  Vol.  55,  p.  911. 


142  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND    EDUCATION 

involved  in  the  day's  record,  I  wish  to  say  that  although  I 
followed  each  child  about  the  house,  barn,  yard,  garden,  side- 
walk, across  the  street  to  a  playmate's  yard,  swing,  sandpile, 
etc..  I  went  through  fewer  than  one  fifth  of  the  number  of  move- 
ments of  body,  legs,  arms,  hands,  feet,  head,  which  the  child 
under  observation  went  through." 

Recent  popular  literature  concerning  child  life  —  such  as 
Graham's  "The  Golden  Age";  Nesbit's  "The  Would-Be- 
Goods"  and  "The  Treasure  Seekers";  Martin's  "Emmy  Lou, 
Her  Heart  and  Her  Book"  ;  and  poems  and  stories  by  Josephine 
Dodge  Daskam,  Stephen  Crane.  R.  R.  Gilson,  Mary  E.  Free- 
man, Eden  Phillpotts,  Ruth  McEnery  Stuart,  N.  A.  White, 
James  Whitcomb  Riley,  Eugene  Field.  Rudyard  Kipling,  el  al., 
are  full  of  references  to  the  restless  hands  and  feet  and  tongues 
of  children.  In  "The  Professor  at  the  Breakfast  Table" 
Holmes  asks  us  to  observe  how  the  boy  "loves  to  run,  swim, 
kick  football,  turn  somersaults,  make  faces,  whittle,  fish,  tear 
his  clothes,  coast,  skate,  fire  crackers,  blow  squash  'tooters,' 
cut  his  name  on  fences,  read  about  Robinson  Crusoe  and  Sindbad 
the  Sailor,  eat  the  widest-angled  slice  of  pie  and  untold  cakes 
and  candies,  crack  nuts  with  his  back  teeth  and  bite  out  the 
better  part  of  another  boy's  apple  with  his  front  ones,  turn  u]) 
coppers,  'stick'  knives,  call  names,  throw  stones,  knock  ofT  hats, 
set  mousetraps,  chalk  doorsteps,  'cut  behind'  anything  on 
wheels  or  runners,  whistle  through  his  teeth,  'holler'  Fire!  on 
slight  evidence,  run  after  soldiers,  patronize  an  engine  company, 
or,  in  his  own  words,  'Blow  for  tub  No.  ii.'  "  There  is  sound 
philosophy  beneath  the  mirth  of  such  pictures  of  child  life  as 
Hood  presents  in  his  "Ode  to  an  Infant  Son,"  Habberton  in  his 
"Helen's  Babies,"  and  others. 

Shut  a  child  in  a  room  to  keep  him  out  of  mischief,  and  if  he 
has  no  opportunity  to  climb  or  to  use  the  furniture  for  con- 
structive purposes,  or  to  use  his  hands  in  any  way  in  making  or 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  143 

drawing  or  destroying,  then  his  energies  will  escape  through  his 
vocal  organs,  or  he  will  simply  pound  on  the  floor  or  walls  or  turn 
somersaults.    Ask  him  to  "  sit  perfectly  still"  and  fold  ^he  effect 
his  arms.     Try  as  hard  as  he  may,  he  will  nevertheless  of  ™otor 

,        .  1     .       ,  .  .         restraint 

soon  begm  to  move  around  in  his  seat,  or  swing  on  mental 
his  legs,  or  he  will  at  least  show  unusual  muscular  ^^^^'^y 
tensions  in  his  face  and  arms  and  body  as  a  whole.  When 
normal  children  are  commanded  to  "sit  perfectly  still,"  auto- 
matic movements  of  head,  face,  eyes,  hands,  legs,  mouth,  and 
shoulders  may  often  be  noted  after  a  few  moments  of  effort.  In 
the  case  of  V.  at  six,  some  of  these  automatisms  would  appear 
after  a  brief  period  of  attempting  to  restrain  all  motor  activity. 
H.  and  S.  could  endure  the  tension  for  a  longer  time,  but  even 
they  would  show  considerable  disturbance  after  a  few  minutes 
of  restraint.  Curtis  declares  that  children  of  four  cannot  in- 
hibit all  activity  for  the  space  of  a  minute ;  but  older  children 
can  restrain  themselves  for  a  somewhat  longer  period. 

The  motor  character  of  the  child's  life  is  exhibited  even  in 
his  sleep.  One  who  will  keep  watch  of  a  young  child  during  the 
night  will  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  large  amount  of 
vocal  and  digital  and  bodily  activity  which  will  be  observed. 
Curtis  reports  that  above  seventy-five  per  cent  of  those  who 
made  observations  for  him  upon  the  restlessness  of  children 
during  sleep  detected  movements  of  various  sorts.  The  hands 
were  kept  in  action,  the  limbs  were  held  tense,  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  rolling  over,  finger  twitching,  opening  and  shutting  of  the 
mouth,  moving  of  eyelids,  sucking  the  thumb,  and  so  on.  These 
phenomena  indicate  how  easily  the  nervous  energy  of  the  child 
finds  its  way  to  his  muscles,  even  though  the  needs  of  adaptation 
at  the  moment  do  not  call  for  motor  activity. 

When  a  young  child  cannot  do  anything  in  a  motor  way  he 
will  fall  asleep.  An  adult  might  content  himself,  or  at  least 
busy  himself,  with  thinking,  but  not  so  with  a  five-  or  six-  or 


144 


MENTAl,    DKNELOPMKNT   AND   EDUCATION 


seven-year-old  child.  "  Before  the  teens  is  the  time  for  action  ; 
after  this  will  be  the  time  for  reflection"  —  so  nature  seems  to 
say.  One  rarely  detects  children  of  tender  age  deliberating  upon 
a  situation ;  he  always  finds  them  active  in  a  motor  way  with 
reference  to  it.  By  the  age  of  ten  —  earlier  in  some  cases  and 
later  in  others  —  the  tendency  to  reflect,  which  means  to  review 
one's  experience  with  situations  resembUng  that  which  now 
confronts  one  and  which  summons  him  to  action  of  some  sort, 


Fig.  23.  —  A  typical  scene  in  the  \icinity  of  a  public  school  in  any  large  (ity.     (See 
exercise  5,  page  33^.) 

begins  to  be  manifested ;  and  normally  it  continues  to  gain  in 
prominence  and  importance  until  maturity  is  attained.  De- 
velopment means  in  part  the  gradual  accjuisition  of  power  to 
inhibit  original  impulses  and  the  tendency  to  react  immediately 
upon  the  situations  in  which  one  is  placed. 

At  the  outset  the  child  acts  largely  for  the  pleasure  of  action 
as  an  end  in  itself,  though  the  desire  to  imitate,  to  excel,  and  the 
joy  in  being  the  cause  of  phenomena  doubtless  play  a  part  in 
all  his  activities.  When  children  begin  to  use  a  hammer,  for 
instance,  they  merely  pound,  not  with  the  aim  of  making  any- 
thing in  particular,  or  even  hitting  a  nail.     The  satisfaction  in 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  145 

being  able  to  direct  the  hammer  upon  a  box  or  the  floor  is  suf- 
ficient reward  for  the  young  novice.  Try  to  induce  a  child  of 
four,  or  so,  to  confine  his  pounding  to  driving  nails,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  he  is  not  ready  for  such  specific  and  controlled  activity. 
The  aim  of  constructing  an  object,  of  achieving  a  definite  end  in  his 
action,  cannot  yet  control  his  spontaneity  to  any  large  extent. 
His  muscles  at  this  stage  of  development  have  a  certain  measure 
of  independence  and  initiative ;  they  have  not  yet  become  the 
obedient  servants  of  the  mind,  as  one  might  say.  In  the  course 
of  development,  ends  which  the  individual  desires  to  attain  will 
come  to  determine  most  or  all  his  activities ;  mere  spontaneous 
muscular  action  will  become  subordinate  to  ideas,  but  it  is  just 
the  opposite  at  the  start. 

One  who  has  observed  children  develop  must  have  noticed 
that   as    they  proceed  from   infancy  on   toward  maturity  the 
period  during  which  motor  action  may  be  and  habit- 
ually is  restrained  is  gradually  increased.     Of  course,  comes  with 
children  differ  in  the  rapidity  with  which  they  develop  <^eveiop- 
inhibition.     V.,  a  boy,  is  less  restrained  at  seven  than 
H.,  his  sister,  was  at  that  age.     The  so-called  motor  type  of 
person  does  not  acquire  inhibition  as  readily  or  as  completely  as 
the  so-called  sensory  or  mental  type,  a  point  which  will  receive 
attention  further  along.     From  the  sixth  or  seventh  year  for- 
ward, children  who  have  the  opportunity  to  do  so  spend  some 
part  of  their  waking  hours  in  hearing  and  reading  stories  and 
enjoying  pictures ;   and  they  may  even  sit  quietly  in  their  seats 
in  school  and  ''learn  their  lessons."     It  is  probable,   though, 
that  the  mental  states  established  by  the  stories  they  read  or 
hear  or  the  pictures  they  see  tend  to  become  expressed  readily 
in  appropriate  action.     The  whole  organism  is  doubtless  affected 
in  characteristic  ways  to  some  degree,  at  least  by  those  parts  of 
any  story  or  picture  that  depict  vital  situations,  regarded  from 
the  child's  standpoint. 


140  MKMAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

A  situation  would  not  be  felt  as  vital  if  there  were  no  organic 
and  motor  etTects  produced  in  contemplating  it.  As  Fere  ' 
says,  —  the  whole  body  "thinks"  when  the  brain  is  in  action. 
In  the  early  years  contemplation  implies  more  than  seeing  or 
hearing  or  imaging  in  a  strict  sense ;  it  implies  that  the  child 
gains  an  appreciation  of  what  the  eye  and  ear  give  and  what 
images  mean  because  of  certain  organic  and  motor  accompani- 
ments. In  telling  H.,  during  her  fifth  year,  the  story  of  Blue- 
beard, her  respiration  was  always  affected  at  the  tragical  mo- 
ments. Also  her  muscles  became  rigid  when  the  place  was 
reached  where  the  door  was  opened  into  the  secret  closet,  and 
she  got  a  sight  of  the  remains  of  the  women  who  had  been  killed 
there.  And  this  is  typical  of  much  that  may  be  observed  in 
childhood,  if  one  will  look  for  it.  With  development  this 
organic  and  motor  respon.se,  like  so  much  else  in  child  nature, 
becomes  subdued,  checked  down,  but  it  probably  nev^er  wholly 
disappears.  Even  in  adult  life  there  seem  to  be  remains  at 
least  of  the  earlier  tendency  toward  organic  and  motor  response 
to  every  situation  which  makes  an  impression  upon  the  individual. 

To  stress  the  point  mentioned  in  the  last  paragraph,  —  when 
children  begin  to  appreciate  a  picture  or  interpret  the  language 
of  a  story  they  try  to  ''act  out"  more  or  less  completely  what 
they  see  and  hear.  Tell  a  child  of  four  or  five  the  story  of  the 
Three  Bears,  and  he  will  be  likely  to  growl  as  he  imagines  they 
do ;  he  will  show  you  how  Silver  Hair  ran,  how  the  bears  ate  the 
porridge,  and  the  like.  So  he  will  bark  like  the  dogs  in  his 
stories,  puff  like  the  steam  engines,  run  on  all  fours  as  the  cats 
and  other  quadrupeds  do,  and  so  on  at  length.  One  could  not 
mention  a  dog  in  any  connection  in  the  presence  of  S.  when  he 
had  reached  his  nineteenth  month  without  his  barking  and 
otherwise  exhibiting  the  behavior  of  the  animal  as  he  had  had 
experience  with  it,  either  actually  or  in  the  representations  of  his 

•  Sensation  ct  Moiivcment,  p.  25. 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION 


147 


elders.  So  any  allusion  to  a  steam  engine  would  not  fail  to  set 
his  arms  and  legs  and  lungs  in  motion  after  the  pattern  of  the 
engine,  as  he  thought.  It  is  probable  that  understanding  or 
appreciation,  if  we  may  use  these  terms  interchangeably  for  the 
present,  always  involves  more  or  less  complete  reaction  in  the 
beginning ;  but  with  development  the  motor  and  organic 
processes   in  dealing   with  many    famihar    situations    decline, 


Fig.  24. 


Girls  as  well  as  boys  like  to  play  vigorous  competitive  games.     (See  exercise 
6,  page  S33-) 


and  the  same  is  true  of  the  distinct  conscious  processes.  It  is 
the  rule  that  development  secures  abridgment  or  condensation 
of  the  detailed  processes,  intellectual,  emotional,  organic  and 
motor,  in  all  oft-repeated  experiences. 

It  should  be  noted  especially  in  this  connection  that  when 
children  make  given  reactions  fairly  easily,  they  seem  not  to 
be  so  eager  to  practice  them  as  they  were  when  they  first  tried 
to  make  them,  except  when  the  needs  of  adjustment  demand 
them.     As  development  proceeds,  new  interests  are  continually 


148  MENTAL   DE\ELOPMENT  AND    EDUCATION 

appearing  as  vital  functions  mature  and  bodily  powers  increase, 
and  these  new  interests,  representing  insistent  desires  and  needs, 
prevent  the  attention  from  remaining  on  the  old  responses. 
Nervous  energy  is  probably  drawn  into  channels  that  represent 
newer  reactions.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  children  from  the 
second  year  on  for  several  years  will  allow  no  one  to  relieve  them 
of  doing  anything  relatively  novel  which  they  can  perform  even 
in  a  very  imperfect  manner.  They  insist  upon  feeding  them- 
selves, dressing  themselves,  making  their  own  playthings, 
opening  all  packages  that  come  to  the  house,  and  so  on.  When 
any  of  these  processes  have  become  thoroughly  familiar,  however, 
there  seems  to  be  little  or  no  desire  on  the  part  of  the  individual 
to  continue  to  perform  them.  At  seven  or  thereabouts  he  is 
willing  to  have  some  one  button  his  shoes  and  clothing,  cut  his 
meat,  run  errands  for  him,  and  the  like. 

Considered  from  the  standpoint  of  nervous  function,  inhibi- 
tion of  an  act  is  secured  by  using  in  other  ways  the  attention 
The  neuro-  and  energy  which  are  needed  for  its  support.  An 
view^f  individual  will  then  gain  the  power  to  restrain  im- 

inhibition  pulses  according  as  he  acquires  new  ways  of  directing 
his  attention  and  utilizing  his  energies.  In  the  early  years  his 
range  of  interests  and  of  imagery  is  closely  limited  to  situations 
requiring  motor  response.  He  does  not  and  probably  cannot 
attend  to  situations  which  require  the  review  and  organization 
of  images  and  idea-complexes  before  reaction  can  occur;  that 
is,  he  does  not  reflect.  A  three-year-old's  attention  is  confined 
almost  entirely  to  situations  of  which  motor  action  is  an  essential 
factor,  and  so  he  must  respond  in  a  motor  way.  A  dog's  atten- 
tion is  probably  concerned  with  situations  requiring  quite  direct 
motor  response,  and  the  same  is  true  of  all  the  lower  animals  — 
the  lower  the  animal  in  the  scale  of  intelligence,  the  more  direct 
and  uncomplicated  the  motor  response  to  stimulation  of  any 
sort.     The  higher  the  animal  in  intelligence,   the  greater  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  149 

possibility  of  deflecting  a  stimulus  from  the  direct  route  to  motor 
reaction  so  that  it  will  be  modified  or  arrested  by  the  results  of 
experience.  Thus  a  dog  can  be  so  trained  that  he  will  not  take 
food  from  the  table  or  bark  at  passers-by,  and  so  on,  though  his 
inclination  is  to  do  these  things. 

Speaking  neurologically  again,  —  as  the  associative  functions 
of  the  brain  mature,  any  one  impression  becomes  connected 
up  with  an  ever-increasing  body  of  experiences  which  reenforce 
or  check  its  tendency  to  issue  in  action  according  as  the  outcome 
in  the  past  has  been  agreeable  or  otherwise.  In  the  beginning 
the  child  acts,  and  thinks  afterwards ;  but  with  development 
these  processes  are  turned  around.  Psychologically,  this  seems 
simple  enough  ;  the  infant  must  act  in  order  to  gain  a  knowledge 
of  the  values  of  things,  but  as  he  discovers  these  values  he  uses 
his  knowledge  to  guide  his  future  action.  Conduct,  then,  must 
be  precipitous,  impulsive,  unrestrained  at  the  outset,  else  the 
child  would  never  act  at  all.  Control  must  follow  and  grow  out 
of  spontaneity.  Muscles  must  dominate  in  the  early  years  in 
order  that  the  later  ones  may  be  characterized  by  deHberate, 
purposeful,  controlled  action. 

The  principle  to  be  impressed  is  that  the  less  elaborate  the 
intellectual  processes  the  greater  the  likelihood  that  any  stimu- 
lation will  run  directly  into  motor  channels ;  while  the  more 
elaborate  the  intellectual  processes  the  more  completely  will 
stimulations  be  checked  or  inhibited.  This  means  that  an 
animal  or  a  person  that  can  retain  the  results  of  experience  will 
develop  the  power  of  inhibition  to  some  extent,  while  one  that 
cannot  retain  experience  cannot  acquire  inhibition  in  any  degree. 
An  idiot  can  retain  experience  only  to  a  slight  extent,  and  so  he 
can  acquire  only  a  very  low  degree  of  inhibition.  Nature  men 
are  not  so  restrained  as  men  of  culture  because  they  cannot 
retain  as  wide  a  range  and  variety  of  experience,  and  such 
experiences  as  they  can  retain  are  not  so  fully  organized,  so  that 


I^O 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


they  cannot  rcenforce  or  check  one  another,  as  is  the  case  with 
more  advanced  peoples. 

This  implies  on  the  intellectual  side  that  one  can  entertain 
ideas  that  do  not  relate  directly  and  immediately  to  situations 
demanding  motor  reaction.  A  philosopher,  for  example,  attends 
so  constantly  to  "abstract"  matters,  matters  that  do  not  concern 
his  immediate  interests  or  welfare  in  any  way,  that  motor 
activity  is  largely  inhibited,  at  least  for  long  periods  at  a  time; 


Fig.  25. — A  typical  scene  in  a  children's  indoor  game  room.     (Sec  exercise  6, 

page  333-) 

though  in  the  end  it  is  probable  his  reflections  may  issue  in 
appropriate  action.  It  is  possible  that  some  men  may  spend 
their  lives  in  reflection,  and  others,  perhaps  their  descendants, 
at  any  rate  not  themselves,  may  be  guided  by  their  reflections. 
Plato,  Aristotle,  Kant  and  Hegel  were  probably  less  influenced 
themselves  in  their  conduct  by  their  own  reflections  than  have 
been  some  of  the  generations  since  their  time.  The  social  organ- 
ism is  so  constituted  that  some  of  its  members  may  give  them- 
selves to  reflection,  while    others    put    their    conclusions    into 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF   INHIBITION  151 

execution.  Doubtless  the  goal  of  all  thinking  is  action;  but 
it  is  not  imperative  for  either  individual  or  social  well-being 
that  the  circle  should  be  completed  in  any  one  individual  life, 
or  even  in  any  one  generation. 

In  what  has  been  said  thus  far  it  has  been  the  aim  to  show 
that  in  the  earliest  years  motor  activity  is  dominant,  but  as 
development   proceeds   the   brakes  are    applied   and 

,  .  ,  .    .         Suggestions 

by  the  time  maturity  is  reached  intellectual  activity  gained  from 
normally  become  ascendant.  As  intellectual  com-  ena^of^'^°™' 
plexity  increases  motor  dominance  decreases.  In  degenera- 
this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  in  degeneracy 
there  is  descent  over  the  route  by  which  the  individual  ascended 
during  his  developmental  course.  The  poise  and  control  by 
which  a  mature  person  adjusts  himself  in  happy  relations  to  a 
complex  environment  are  earliest  lost  in  nervous  disintegration. 
The  effect  is  seen  first  in  lessened  restraint  of  motor  action. 
The  tongue  is  less  restrained,  for  one  thing.  Then  the  egoistic 
impulses  manifest  themselves  more  readily  in  anger,  in  selfishness, 
in  sensuousness,  and  the  like.  It  is  well  known  to  alienists  that 
a  prominent  effect  of  insanity  is  seen  in  the  tendency  of  the 
patient  to  react  upon  situations  without  deliberation.  Stimuli 
produce  response  so  directly  that  experience  counts  for  little, 
and  impulse  comes  to  the  front  again.  Hall,  in  his  study  of 
anger,  points  out  that  irritability,  one  of  the  earlier  effects  of 
mental  disturbance,  is  caused  by  the  weakening  of  the  inhibitory 
powers  so  that  the  victim  becomes  the  creature  of  any  morbid 
impulse  which  may  be  suggested.  Some  forms  of  insanity  are 
characterized  by  this  almost  entire  lack  of  inhibitory  power, 
so  that  primitive  and  anti-social  tendencies  run  riot  in  the 
individual's  fife. 

An  interesting  case  cited  by  Bateman  ^  shows  that  impressions 
made  upon  the  nervous  organism  at  one  time  may  be  kept  from 

^  Aphasia  and  the  Localization  of  the  Faculty  of  Speech,  p.  i8q. 


152  MENTAL   I)i:\  KLOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

motor  realization  through  the  inhibitory  force  of  the  environ- 
ment ;  but  in  nervous  disease,  when  inhibition  is  impaired,  they 
may  become  manifest.  ''In  a  town  in  Germany,"  he  says, 
"a  young  woman  of  four  or  five  and  twenty,  who  could  neither 
read  nor  write,  was  seized  with  a  nervous  fever,  during  which 
she  continued  incessantly  talking  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew, 
in  very  pompous  tones,  and  with  most  distinct  enunciation. 

"The  case  had  attracted  the  particular  attention  of  a  young 
physician,  and  by  his  statement  many  eminent  physiologists 
and  psychologists  visited  the  town,  and  cross-examined  the 
case  on  the  spot.  Sheets  full  of  her  ravings  were  taken  down 
from  her  mouth,  and  were  found  to  consist  of  sentences,  coherent 
and  intelligible  each  for  itself,  but  with  little  or  no  connection 
with  each  other.  Of  the  Hebrew  a  small  portion  only  could  be 
traced  to  the  Bible,  the  remainder  seemed  to  be  in  the  rabbinical 
dialect. 

"All  tricks  or  conspiracy  was  out  of  the  question;  not  only 
had  the  young  woman  been  a  harmless,  simple  creature,  but  she 
was  evidently  laboring  under  a  nervous  fever.  Inquiries  having 
been  made  as  to  the  antecedents  of  this  girl,  it  was  ascertained 
that  she  had  formerly  lived  as  a  servant  to  an  old  pastor,  a  very 
learned  man,  and  a  great  Hebrew  scholar.  It  had  been  the 
custom  of  this  worthy  di\ane  to  walk  up  and  down  a  passage 
of  his  house  into  which  the  kitchen  door  opened,  and  to  read  to 
himself,  with  a  loud  voice,  out  of  his  favorite  books,  which 
consisted  of  rabbinical  writings,  together  with  several  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  fathers ;  from  these  works  so  many  passages 
were  identified  with  those  taken  down  at  the  young  woman's 
bedside  that  no  doubt  could  remain  concerning  the  true  origin 
of  the  impressions  made  on  her  nervous  system." 

Thf  phenomenon  of  descent  from  control  and  inhibition  to 
a  point  where  impulses  manifest  themselves  unchecked  is  seen 
in   inebriety,   a   form   of   temporary   degeneracy.     The   typical 


THE  DE\'ELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  153 

drunkard  is  irritable,  petulant,  peevish,  and  indeed  has  quite 
lost  control  of  himself.  He  is  exceedingly  disagreeable  to  live 
with  because  he  cannot  properly  control  his  egoistic  emotions. 
He  has  lost  the  "virtues  that  make  for  peace  and  happiness." 
His  power  of  attention  is  lessened  ;  he  cannot  hold  it  persistently 
to  any  task  —  traits  which  are  characteristic  of  the  child.  The 
drunkard  is  not  reliable  in  his  judgment;  he  is  rash  or  timid 
in  his  enterprises ;  he  is  unable  to  "  direct  the  balance  of  proba- 
bilities "  ;  his  actions  are  not  adapted  to  the  occasions  which  call 
them  forth ;  he  is,  in  short,  reduced  to  the  state  of  juvenility. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation,  too,  that  self-control, 
as  we  say,  is  often  lessened  in  fatigue.  As  in  other  forms  of 
nervous  disturbance,  so  in  fatigue,  the  highest  and  most  com- 
plex cerebral  areas  are  first  affected,  and  they  lose  their  hold 
on  the  lower  centers  in  which  the  primitive  impulses  originate. 
Most  persons  when  overstrained  are  not  "  themselves  " ;  now 
trifles  annoy  them  and  produce  excessive  reaction,  when  at  other 
times  they  would  be  able  to  keep  their  attention  on  something 
more  pleasing.  Hot  words  usually  come  at  such  a  time.  When 
one  is  in  good  repair  he  can  restrain  himself  because  he  can  call 
to  his  aid  many  considerations  which  will  keep  the  lower  im- 
pulses in  check. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE   DE\T:L0PMENT  of  INHIBITION:    RESTRAINING 

FORCES 

A  PERFECTLY  restrained  i)erson  would  be  one  all  of  whose  ac- 
tivities would  be  precisely  adjusted  to  the  social  and  physical 
situations  in  which  he  might  be  placed  ;  he  would 

The  per- 

fectiy  neither  be  too  greatly  nor  too  slightly  inhibited.     To 

restrained      illustrate  :  young  cMldren  laugh  on  all  occasions  when 

individual  , 

anything  "funny"  happens  ;  but  a  properly  restrained 

person  would  not  laugh  while  attending  a  funeral,  for  instance, 
even  if  incongruous  situations  were  presented.  He  would  not 
engage  in  boisterous  and  unrestrained  laughter  on  any  occasion 
unless  he  found  himself  in  a  group  in  which  the  members  were 
gi\ing  free  rein  to  their  mirthful  feelings.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  would  not  remain  solemn  in  groui)s  in  which  everyone  but 
himself  indulged  in  hilarity.  By  overchecking  himself  in  respect 
to  laughter  he  would  become  ill-adapted  to  the  situations  in 
which  he  was  placed  as  fully  as  if  he  should  go  to  excess  in  the 
other  direction.  In  the  same  way  he  would  not  talk  excessively 
when  he  was  in  groups  where  others  wished  to  talk ;  neither 
would  he  remain  speechless  in  such  groups ;  one  frequently  sees 
persons  who  illustrate  both  types.  So  take  any  activity  whatso- 
ever ;  one  would  be  well  restrained  in  respect  to  it  when  he  had 
it  under  such  control  that  he  could  rein  it  in  when  necessary  or 
let  it  go  when  circumstances  so  advised ;  but  he  would  never 
give  too  great  license  to  the  activity  nor  would  he  unduly  inhibit 
himself  in  regard  to  it. 

Our  question  now  is,  —  how  does  the  child  gain  such  control 
over  his  activities  that  on  his  own  initiative  he  can  regulate 

1 54 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  155 

them  according  to  the  demands  of  the  situations  in  which  he 
is  placed  ?  We  have  seen  that  when  he  is  born  he  has  an  equip- 
ment of  impulses  which,  while  essential  in  liis  life,  are  neverthe- 
less, as  they  tend  to  be  spontaneously  expressed,  not  well  ad- 
justed to  present-day  social  and  physical  conditions.  The  in- 
dividual's impulses  were  estabhshed  in  different  circumstances 
from  those  which  environ  him  to-day,  and  they  must  either  be 
strengthened  or  checked  down  or  perhaps  completely  eliminated 
in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  present-day 

Experiences 

life.  With  a  view  to  observing  the  experiences  which  which 
a  child  must  have  in  order  to  acquire  restraint  of  an  fgj^^^^t 
impulse,  we  may  take  a  typical  concrete  instance. 
Every  normal,  untaught,  two-year-old  cliild  is  eager  to  secure 
immediately  whatever  attracts  his  attention  when  he  is 
brought  to  the  table.  Suppose  he  sees  sugar  as  soon  as  he  is 
placed  in  his  high  chair.  Nature  seems  to  say  to  him,  —  "  Get 
the  sugar;  it  will  give  you  pleasure,"  and  it  is  certain  that  he 
will  reach  for  it.  But  his  parents  decide  that  he  must  learn  to 
restrain  himself  when  he  comes  to  the  table ;  so  they  slap  his  hand, 
let  us  say,  which  is  a  method  of  training  very  often  practiced  by 
parents.  Nature  again  seems  to  say  to  him :  "  When  an  object 
gives  you  pain  pull  away  from  it.  If  your  hand  is  struck,  with- 
draw it  instantly."  But  after  a  few  minutes,  when  the  sting  has 
become  softened,  the  child  looks  at  the  sugar ;  the  original  im- 
pulse gains  the  right  of  way  and  he  grabs  again.  His  mother 
slaps  him  as  before  and  he  withdraws  his  hand.  So  the  episode 
is  repeated  a  half  dozen  times  at  this  one  meal.  What  is  the 
situation  at  the  close  of  the  meal  ?  The  child  has  made  some  con- 
nection between  reaching  for  the  sugar  and  suffering  pain,  and 
he  has  withdrawn  his  hand  every  time  when  it  has  been  struck. 
The  next  day  when  he  is  brought  to  the  table  again  it  is  prac- 
tically certain  that  he  will  reach  for  the  sugar.  The  mother 
slaps  his  hand  and  he  reacts  as  he  did  at  the  previous  meal. 


156  MENTAL  DEVELOPiMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

Several  times  during  this  meal  he  grabs,  suffers  pain  and  with- 
draws his  hand.  This  program  is  followed  at  every  meal  for  a 
month,  and  every  time  the  child  has  the  experience  the  con- 
nection between  grabbing  and  suffering  pain  therefrom  is 
strengthened,  provided  that  the  distress  experienced  means  more 
to  him  than  the  pleasure  he  derives  from  securing  the  sugar. 
If  he  would  rather  have  the  sugar  and  take  the  pain  with  it, 
then  he  may  establish  some  connection  between  grabbing  and  its 
consequences,  but  he  will  not  be  restrained  because  the  pleasure 
which  the  sugar  yields  is  so  strong  that  the  discomfort  attend- 
ing the  securing  of  it  will  not  inhibit  grabbing  for  it.  Normally, 
though,  repeated  painful  experiences  will  in  time  arrest  the  actions 
on  account  of  which  the  pain  is  suffered. 

One  can  observe  a  child's  progress  in  acquiring  self-restraint 
in  respect  to  this  particular  act.  There  is  a  stage  in  the  learn- 
stages  in  ^^S  process  when  the  child's  hand  will  be  extended 
acquiring  toward  the  sugar  but  will  be  withdrawn  before  the  act 
is  completed  ;  the  impulse  to  grab  functions  reflexly 
and  so  gets  started  before  the  painful  experience  is  awakened 
to  control  it.  There  is  another  stage  in  the  learning  process 
when  the  child  will  hesitate  for  a  number  of  seconds  between 
grabbing  and  restraining  himself ;  there  is  apparently  a  struggle 
between  the  impulse  and  the  consequence  of  giving  rein  to  it. 
But  in  time,  if  there  be  no  intermission  in  the  learning  process, 
the  hand  will  not  l)e  extended  at  all ;  the  restraining  effect  of 
the  painful  experience  becomes  dominant.  And  after  repeated 
and  unfailing  restraint  of  the  act  of  grabbing,  the  dynamic  force 
of  the  impulse  to  grab  appears  to  become  diminished.  It  is 
improbable,  though,  that  the  impulse  ever  wholly  disappears. 
Adult  university  students  have  testified  that  often  they  feel  a 
strong  impulse  to  reach  for  what  attracts  them  at  the  table, 
and  they  are  frequently  aware  of  making  a  conscious  effort 
to  restrain  themselves.     Many  adults  have  confessed  that  when 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  157 

no  one  is  present  at  table  they  do  grab  for  sugar  or  doughnuts 
or  apples  or  some  other  tasty  article. 

There  are  other  forces  than  physical  coercion  which  will  lead 
to  restraint  of  any  impulse  like  grabbing  for  objects  that  give 
pleasure.     Take  the  child  mentioned  above  who  is  _^    .    , 

i  ,  Physical 

learning  not  to  grab  for  sugar.     Instead  of  slapping  coercion 
him  when  he  offends,  his  mother  now  pushes  him  away  ^^ly  force 
from  the  table,  or  takes  him  down  from  his  high  chair  t^^t  leads 

to  restraint 

and  locks  him  in  a  room.  Every  time  he  grabs  this 
penalty  is  applied.  It  operates  in  precisely  the  same  manner 
fundamentally  as  slapping  does,  only  it  will  probably  restrain 
the  grabbing  activity  more  quickly  than  slapping  because  of 
the  long-continued  impression  which  it  makes  upon  the  learner. 
The  effect  of  slapping  the  hand  lasts  in  the  beginning  only  while 
the  dermal  pain  endures,  though  with  constant  repetition  the 
experience  becomes  permanent  and  continues  from  one  day  or 
week  or  month  to  another.  But  when  a  child  is  put  away  from 
the  table  the  painful  experience  lasts  for  a  considerable  period 
at  the  very  beginning  and  every  time  it  is  repeated. 

There  are  still  other  methods  of  checking  the  impulse  to  grab. 
The  mother  does  not  slap  the  child  or  put  him  away  from  the 
table  when  he  grabs,  but  instead  she  speaks  to  or  looks  at  him 
sharply.  Nature  seems  to  say  to  a  two-year-old  child:  ''When 
anyone  speaks  to  you  in  a  harsh  voice  or  looks  at  you  threaten- 
ingly cease  the  action  in  which  you  are  engaged.  Protect  your- 
self." Every  time  the  child  grabs,  the  mother  warns  him  with  a 
look  and  in  a  threatening  tone,  and  the  effect  upon  him  is  much 
the  same  in  relation  to  the  restraint  of  the  original  impulse  as  if 
she  had  slapped  him  or  denied  him  his  meal.  But  a  counteracting 
effect  is  likely  to  set  in  with  respect  to  this  mode  of  controlling 
the  impulse.  When  a  child  first  hears  a  harsh  voice  or  sees  a 
stern  face  he  is  terrified,  but  when  upon  constant  repetition  no 
other  harm  than  fear  comes  to  him  the  fear  gradually  subsides, 


158  MENTAL   DE\  KLOl'.MEX  r   AND   EDUCATION 

and  ill  time  the  child  is  Hkely  to  become  immune  to  the  harsh 
voice  or  look.  One  can  see  children  five  or  six  or  seven  years  of 
age,  sometimes  still  younger,  who  have  become  callous  to  even 
the  harshest  tones  or  looks  of  father  or  mother,  though  at  the  out- 
set they  were  much  impressed  and  were  restrained  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  activities  which  occasioned  the  harshness. 

With  an  older  individual  —  in  youth  or  adult  life  —  a  harsh 
voice  and  condemning  expression  on  the  features  of  the  parent 
„    ^   .  .       or  the  teacher  will  normally  exert  a  stronger  restrain- 

Restraining  _  •'  ° 

influences  ing  influence  than  with  a  two-year-old  child,  for  the 
d^erentiy  Tcason  that  in  youth  and  maturity  the  approval  or  dis- 
at  various      approval  of  one's  parents,  teachers  or  other  persons  is 

stages  in  ^'^ 

develop-  the  most  potent  force  in  determining  one's  behavior, 
ment  r^^^^  two-year-old  child  will  respond  actively  to  vocal 

and  featural  expression  principally  because  they  are  indices  of 
dynamic  attitudes  on  the  part  of  the  parents  or  governess  or 
older  brother  or  sister ;  but  the  fifteen-year-oId  child  will  be 
governed  by  vocal  and  featural  expression  mainly  because  in 
this  way  he  gains  a  cue  as  to  how  he  is  regarded  by  his  parents 
and  others.  Normally  he  now  desires  the  good-will  and  esteem 
of  those  about  him,  and  he  is  affected  by  any  sign  which  in- 
dicates that  they  are  condemning  him  for  his  actions.  Good- 
w'ill  and  approval  as  such  have  no  significance  or  value  for  a 
year-old  child ;  but  they  have  profound  meaning  and  value  for 
an  eighteen-year-old  person,  and  their  importance  and  so  their 
restraining  influence  increase  steadily  until  full  maturity  is  at- 
tained. So  it  is  inevitable  that  as  the  child  develops  into  and 
through  adolescence  the  expressions  of  disapproval  of  the  people 
around  him  for  his  behavior  at  table  should  play  a  constantly 
more  dominating  role  in  building  restraints  against  impulses 
which  lead  him  into  conflict  with  existing  conventions. 

There  are  still  other  restraining  forces  that  play  upon  the 
child  and  cooperate  in  holding  his  impulses  in  check.     As  he 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  159 

develops  he  pays  more  and  more  attention  to  the  behavior  of 
those  around  him,  and  he  imitates  the  activities  of  the  people 
with  whom  he  associates.    While  he  imitates  principally 
positive  actions  rather  than  inhibitions,  he  neverthe-  of  self- 
less does  begin  to  notice  inhibitions  by  the  age  of  festramt 

®  _    -^  °  in  others 

six,  at  any  rate.     It  is  true  that  his  impulses  are  so 

urgent  at  the  age  of  four  or  live  that  even  when  he  notes  that 

his  father  and  mother  and  brothers  and  sisters  and  guests  do 

not  grab  at  table,  his  discovery  does  not  exercise  a  controlling 

influence  over  his  impulse.     But  he  does  notice,   that  is  the 

point ;  and  his  observations  make  a  deeper  and  deeper  impression 

as  he  increases  in  age,  because  normally  he  tends  to  become  Hke 

the  people  with  whom  he  associates.     His  impulse  to  grab  at 

table  might  in  time  be  checked  simply  by  the  observation  that 

others  about  him  do  not  grab  ;  but  one  rarely  if  ever  sees  a  child 

who  has  not  been  influenced  by  many  other  forces,  all  of  which 

unite  to  reenforce  his  wish    to  behave  at   table    the  way  the 

people  around  him  do. 

The  influence  of  imitation  in  developing  self-restraint  applies 

to  one's  reading  as  well  as  his  observation  of  persons  in  the  flesh. 

A  boy,  let  us  say,  reads  stories  concerning  heroes  xhe 

whom  he  would  like  to  copy.     Among  their  other  festrainmg 

^•^  °  influence  of 

characteristics  they  behave  at  table.  When  the  heroes  in 
child's  impulse  to  grab  asserts  itself,  the  heroes  in  his 
stories  will  tend  to  come  forward  and  condemn  him.  One  can 
note  the  influence  of  heroes  in  stories  upon  the  conduct  of  chil- 
dren from  the  fifth  or  sixth  year  on ;  when  they  are  told  stories 
at  this  age  the  characters  will  exert  a  strong  influence  provided 
that  they  seem  to  be  everyday  persons  like  the  learners ;  but 
if  they  appear  to  be  far  removed  from  everyday  situations, 
they  will  exert  little  or  no  influence  upon  the  impulses  of  the 
listeners.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  stories  told  to  children  and 
read  by  them  as  they  grow  older  function  in  their  lives  as  re- 


i6o  Mr.XTAI,    l)i:\  Kl.Ol'MKXT    AND    KDUCATION 

straining  lorcos  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  less  in  the  earlier 
and  greater  in  the  later  years. 

We  have  not  nientioned  all  the  forces  that  normally  play  upon 
an  individual  and  operate  to  develop  restraint  of  such  an  impulse 
».    ,    .        as  we  have  been  considering,  but  we  have  gone  far 

The  fusion  o  o 

of  restrain-  cuough  to  suggcst  what  might  be  called  the  natural 
'"^  ^  ^  history  of  a  typical  act  of  self-restraint.  Now,  these 
forces  of  everyday  experience  fuse  together  and  exert  a  joint  in- 
fluence as  development  proceeds,  until  in  the  end  any  individual 
factor,  though  it  may  have  exerted  an  influence  separately  in 
the  beginning,  ordinarily  cannot  be  distinguished  in  its  origin 
or  influence  from  the  others.  The  impulse  to  grab  at  table  is 
restrained  in  the  man,  but  he  cannot  tell  as  a  rule  just  how  re- 
straint has  been  developed.  The  combined  effect  of  all  these 
forces  is  felt  by  him  to  be  an  act  of  volition,  performed  in  view  of 
his  conception  of  what  is  right  in  the  circumstances.  It  would  be 
in  accord  with  present-day  psychology  to  say  that  the  restraining 
forces  which  have  put  a  check  to  the  grabbing  impulse  gradually 
withdraw  to  the  outer  limits  or  to  the  lower  strata  of  conscious- 
ness according  as  they  establish  a  habit  of  restraint,  which  in 
reality  means  that  they  hold  an  impulse  in  leash  until  a  new  act 
in  accord  with  the  requirements  of  the  environment  has  been 
estabHshed  in  the  place  of  the  impulsive  act.  In  due  course 
this  new  act  acquires  such  facility  or  momentum  or  value  that  it 
can  be  depended  upon  to  occur  in  the  place  of  the  impulse  which 
it  is  designed  to  replace.  But  while  the  factors  that  have  exerted 
the  restraining  influence  throughout  the  formative  years  disap- 
pear from  focal  attention,  they  still  remain  on  guard  marginally 
so  long  as  the  individual  retains  nervous  poise  and  vigor.  If  the 
original  impulse  should  become  insurgent  in  a  normal  eighteen- 
year-old  person  and  he  should  start  to  grab  at  table  again,  one 
or  more  or  all  of  these  restraining  forces  would  be  likely  to  come 
forward  and  exert  an  inhibitory  influence.     This  would  not  be 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  i6i 

the  case  if  the  individual  should  become  drunk  or  mentally  de- 
generate or  even  nervously  exhausted.  Under  these  latter  con- 
ditions native  impulses  are  stronger  than  the  learned  acts  which 
should  restrain  them.  Degenerate  persons  are  apt  to  be  con- 
trolled by  impulse  much  as  they  were  in  infancy. 

We  have  yet  to  mention  an  important  factor  in  the  restraint 
of  impulse.  Still  keeping  to  our  typical  concrete  instance  of 
grabbing  for  sugar,  the  time  may  come  in  the  indi- 
vidual's development  when  the  original  appetite  for  weakening 
sugar  becomes  less  aggressive.  He  may  have  been  ?^  ^" 
made  ill  by  it;  or  he  may  have  heard  it  said  that 
sugar  was  "bad  for  the  wind"  and  he  wishes  to  avoid  experiences 
which  will  prevent  him  from  out-running  or  out-playing  his 
rivals.  If  one  or  more  of  these  factors  or  others  like  them  have 
come  into  his  life,  the  impulse  to  grab  sugar  may  lose  some  of 
its  dynamic  force.  Nature  will  no  longer  say  in  efTect  to  the 
individual :  ''  Grab  for  sugar  whenever  you  get  a  chance  because 
it  will  give  you  pleasure."  On  the  contrary  she  will  say :  "Let 
sugar  alone  because  you  will  not  like  it  or  you  will  not  be  as  effi- 
cient if  you  eat  it."  Doubtless  every  reader  can  think  of  many 
instances  illustrating  this  principle  in  respect  to  some  of  his  own 
acts  of  self-restraint.  He  may  have  lost  his  taste  for  certain 
foods  or  drinks,  or  his  love  of  certain  games  or  pastimes,  or  his 
interest  in  certain  activities,  as  dancing  or  climbing  trees  or  box- 
ing, and  so  they  do  not  appeal  to  him.  Once  they  may  have 
been  exceedingly  urgent  and  he  may  have  given  way  to  them, 
but  he  has  become  restrained  with  respect  to  them  simply  be- 
cause they  do  not  urge  indulgence  upon  him. 

We  should  now  consider  the  role  played  by  formal  education 
in  holding  in  check  impulses  which  if  indulged  would  bring  the 
individual  into  hostility  with  his  social  or  physical  environment. 
Will  the  study  of  arithmetic  help  to  check  the  impulse  to  grab 
for  food  at  the  table?     In  order  to  see  if  the  study  of   arith- 


i62  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

metic  would  exert  any  checking  influence  on  a  child's  grabbing, 
let  us  assume  that  no  other  restraining  force  whatsoever  would 
The  r6ie  of  P^^y  upon  him  in  controlling  this  impulse.  He  comes 
formal  up  to  the  age  of  seven  or  eight  wholly  unrestrained 

education         /  ,  ,  .  ,    ,  ,       r 

in  develop-  in  rcspect  to  grabl)mg  and  he  spends  forty  mmutes 
ing  restraint  ^r^^-^i  day  learning  arithmetical  rules  and  solving 
problems.  Will  this  experience  play  down  upon  the  impulse  in 
any  manner  or  degree?  It  is  impossible  to  see  that  there  would 
be  any  direct  connection  established  between  the  facts  of  arith- 
metic and  the  impulse  to  be  controlled  ;  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  attention  given  daily  to  arithmetic  would  to  some  extent 
divert  attention  from  sweets  and  so  weaken  the  tendency  to 
secure  them.  Presumably,  the  nervous  energy  which  would 
sustain  the  impulse  to  grab  for  sugar  if  the  individual  gave  no 
attention  to  anything  else  would  be  at  least  slightly  reduced  if 
a  half  hour  every  day  were  spent  in  solving  arithmetical  problems. 
Our  conception  of  brain  function  warrants  the  view  that  expe- 
rience in  solving  problems  results  in  the  development  of  cerebral 
areas  remote  from  the  areas  concerned  with  the  gratification  of 
physical  appetite.  If  this  be  true  it  follows  that  the  study  of 
arithmetic  will  make  demands  upon  attention  and  nervous 
energy  which  otherwise  might  be  devoted  to  the  original  impulse 
to  indulge  appetite.  Also  the  individual  who  spends  a  half  hour 
each  day  in  the  study  of  arithmetic  will  not  be  so  precipitate  in 
acting  in  the  direction  of  his  impulses  as  he  would  be  if  he  had  no 
arithmetical  experience ;  the  latter  experience  will  check  impulse 
by  distributing  to  some  extent  the  attention  which  in  an  individ- 
ual who  has  had  no  study  like  arithmetic  will  be  centered  wholly 
upon  his  impulses. 

If  now  we  add  to  the  study  of  arithmetic  the  study  of  history, 
English  literature,  reading,  music,  drawing,  geography  and 
manual  training,  each  receiving  a  half  hour  of  the  child's  time 
and  energy  each  day,  we  can  say  unhesitatingly  that  even  if  no 


THE   DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  163 

impressions  are  made  in  any  one  of  these  subjects  which  are 
directly  connected  with  the  impulse  to  grab  food,  there  will 
nevertheless  be  such  distribution  of  attention  and  energy  over  a 
great  variety  of  interests  that  the  original  impulse  can  hardly 
function  with  such  vigor  and  persistence  as  it  did  at  the  outset, 
and  as  it  would  continue  to  do  if  the  individual  should  study 
none  of  these  subjects.  An  illustration  is  found  in  the  case  of 
the  imbecile  who  is  unable  to  pursue  any  of  the  studies  mentioned. 
To  the  end  of  his  days  his  impulses  retain  their  original  vigor. 
He  will  grab  for  sugar  on  his  twentieth  birthday  in  much  the 
same  unrestrained  way  that  he  did  on  his  second  or  third  birth- 
day. Psychology,  neurological  theory  and  experience  all  alike 
support  the  view  that  study  in  any  field  tends  in  some  small 
degree  at  least  to  subdue  original  impulses  by  diverting  attention 
and  energy  from  their  support. 

There  are  further  results  of  study  in  certain  subjects  which 
operate  to  check  original  impulses.     In  the  study  of  history 
and  literature,  for  instance,  the  pupil  would  probably   The  in- 
gain   impressions   which   would   operate   directly    to  ^" ^u^  °* 
check  impulses  concerned  with  self-indulgence.     The  established 
gourmand  would  be  held  up  to  scorn  and    ridicule;  literature,' 
animal  appetite  would  be  condemned;  restraint   of   ®*^- 
selfish  indulgence  would  be  exalted.     No  word  might   be  said 
relating  directly  to  the  grabbing  of  food,  but  the  general  ideal  of 
checking  greed  and  piggishness  would  be  strengthened,  and  the 
individual    would    probably    make    some    connection   between 
the  ideal  and  particular  forms  of  indulgent  action.     Of  course, 
the   extent    to   which   anything   taught   in   history,    hterature 
and  similar  subjects  will  play  down  upon  and  check  impulses 
will  depend  upon  the  character  of  the  impressions  estabUshed 
by  these  studies.     If  in  history  a  pupil  should   be    concerned 
mainly    with    learning    dates    and    isolated    events    connected 
therewith,  and  if  in  literature  he  should  study  only  the  names 


i64  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

of  authors  and  the  titles  of  their  works,  there  could  be  very  little 
direct  and  even  very  little  indirect  inlluence  exerted  upon  the 
pupil's  impulses  either  to  overeat  or  overdance  or  cheat  in  his 
examinations  or  use  profane  language  and  so  on.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  the  pupil  should  study  history  as  a  story  of  how 
men  have  lived  in  the  past,  what  their  problems  have  been, 
how  they  have  solved  them,  what  ideals  have  been  held  by  the 
peoples  who  have  progressed  and  grown  strong  in  the  course 
of  time ;  and  if  in  literature  the  pupil  should  gain  vivid  pic- 
tures of  characters  who  are  placed  in  situations  similar  to 
those  in  which  he  is  placed,  and  they  have  solved  problems 
of  behavior  which  confront  him,  and  if  these  characters  make 
a  strong  appeal  to  him  because  of  their  courage  or  cleverness 
or  resourcefulness,  —  then  all  these  ideals  and  impressions  will 
tend  to  play  down  upon  his  indulgent  impulses  and  restrain 
them. 

Formal  education  exerts  a  still  further  influence  in  checking 
original  impulses  which  deserves  mention.  If  a  pupil  spends 
five  hours  a  day  working  over  books  or  with  tools  or 
restraining  physical  or  chcmical  apparatus,  he  tends  to  acquire 
habuT*^^  *^^  attitudes  and  habits  which  as  he  goes  on  will  more 
established  and  more  determine  his  general  behavior.  The  daily 
^  ^ "  ^  exercise  in  solving  problems  or  performing  experi- 
ments or  making  objects  gradually  gives  the  organism  a  set  in 
the  direction  of  these  activities  and  away  from  the  attitudes 
involved  in  running,  yelling,  throwing,  playing  with  dolls,  play- 
ing marbles,  and  so  on.  The  reader  will  doubtless  ask  at 
this  point:  "Why  is  it  that  pupils  who  spend  four  or  five 
hours  a  day  in  school  activities  do  play  with  dolls  and  marbles, 
and  do  run  and  jump  and  climb  and  yell  and  throw  stones  and 
dance,  and  all  the  rest?"  The  answer  is  that  the  more  often 
they  perform  the  school  activities  the  less  persistently  and  vio- 
lently they  perform  the  impulsive  activities.     If  a  child  would 


THE  DE\ELOPMENT   OF  INHIBITION  165 

normally  remain  in  the  combative  period  for  fifteen  years  pro- 
vided he  had  no  formal  educational  experience,  he  would  remain 
in  the  period  a  shorter  time  and  the  combative  tendency  would 
be  less  urgent  if  he  should  spend  four  or  five  hours  a  day  con- 
tinuously throughout  the  period  solving  problems  of  one  kind 
or  another,  or  working  with  tools  and  performing  laboratory  ex- 
periments. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  "scrapping"  period  is  ma- 
terially shortened  through  the  establishment  of  other  and  differ- 
ent attitudes  induced  by  the  acti\dties  of  the  school.  The 
principle  is  illustrated  in  the  completeness  with  which  most 
university  instructors  have  abandoned  many  of  the  activities 
ordinarily  indulged  in  by  men  of  their  age.  When  an  instructor 
spends  from  eight  to  ten  hours  a  day  in  linguistic,  scientific, 
mathematical  or  psychological  studies,  the  attitudes  essential 
for  success  in  these  pursuits  come  to  be  habitual  with  him  until 
presently  his  whole  life  becomes  planned  and  expressed  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  in  harmony  with  these  attitudes.  The 
educated  man,  then,  would  not  be  so  likely  to  go  to  excess  in 
eating  or  drinking  or  fighting  or  licentiousness  of  any  kind  as 
the  uneducated  man,  even  if  his  education  did  not  give  him  any 
specific  impressions  or  ideas  relating  to  restraint  of  impulses. 
The  attitudes  necessary  to  be  assumed  in  acquiring  an  education 
of  any  kind  would  in  some  degree  inhibit  indulgence  and  dissi- 
pation. 

We  may  now  ask  why  it  is  that  individuals  who  apparently 
have   substantially   the   same   native   equipment   and   vigor  of 
impulses  and  the  same  general  experience  and  educa- 
tional training  differ  so  greatly  in  the  readiness  and  com-  differences 
pleteness  with  which  they  acquire  self-restraint.      A  J^  *^® 
typical  concrete  instance  will  bring  the  problem  before  seif- 
us.     J.  is  seventeen  years  of  age  and  F.,  his  brother, 
is  fifteen.     The  older  boy  is  in  "hot  water"  a  considerable  part 
of  the  time.     He  offends  the  people  around  him  by  his  slangy 


1 66  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

talk,  his  immoderate  laughter,  and  his  lack  of  sensitiveness  to 
the  interests  of  others.  He  habitually  overeats ;  he  stays  out 
late  at  night,  though  incessantly  urged  by  his  parents  to  keep 
reasonable  hours.  He  has  always  been  a  source  of  trouble  to 
his  teachers  because  he  likes  to  "start  something."  He  has 
broken  all  his  limbs  at  one  time  or  another  because  he  does 
"dare-devil  tricks,"  —  to  use  his  father's  phrasing.  It  has  been 
difficult  to  keep  him  in  clothes  because  he  uses  them  so  roughly 
that  they  are  always  ragged. 

His  brother,  two  years  younger,  is  the  opposite  in  practically 
every  respect.  F.  has  already  gone  beyond  J.  in  his  school  work. 
He  is  the  favorite  of  his  family  and  of  his  teachers  because  of 
his  self-control,  his  thoughtfulncss,  and  his  geniality.  J.'s 
teachers  have  never  taken  a  fancy  to  him  and  even  his  com- 
panions do  not  care  greatly  for  him  because  he  is  incessantly 
playing  practical  jokes  on  them ;  but  everyone  apparently  likes 
his  brother. 

Why  should  one  boy  be  so  much  more  self-restrained  than  the 
other?  First;  the  older  boy  is  not  sensitive  to  the  attitude  of 
people  toward  him,  —  either  his  parents  or  his  teachers  or  his 
playmates.  He  often  says  he  does  not  care  what  people  say 
about  him,  and  his  actions  give  effect  to  his  words.  If  a  teacher 
scolds  him  he  is  not  humiliated.  He  has  often  been  heard  to  say 
that  he  would  rather  be  "bawled  out"  by  the  teacher  than 
praised.  He  has  substantially  the  same  attitude  toward  his 
companions ;  it  seems  to  make  no  impression  upon  him  if  he 
loses  one  of  them.  He  even  has  the  same  indifferent  attitude 
toward  his  parents.  He  rarely  does  anything  to  show  that  he 
wishes  to  please  them  or  earn  their  good- will. 

He  is  what  might  perhaps  be  called  a  sensuous  type.  He  likes 
food  better  than  he  does  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  those 
about  him.  He  has  a  superabundance  of  physical  energy  and 
apparently  he  does  not  keenly  feel  that  the  good-will  of  anyone 


THE  DEVELOPMEN  r  OF  INHIBITION  167 

would  be  of  value  to  him.  It  is  as  though  nature  said  to  him : 
"You  can  hold  your  own  no  matter  whether  anyone  likes  you 
or  not.  Pay  no  attention  to  their  words  or  their  deeds  in  reaction 
upon  your  expressions.  Gratify  your  appetite,  do  whatever 
pleases  you  at  the  moment,  and  give  no  heed  to  the  responses 
of  the  people  who  are  affected  by  your  actions."  So  in  reality 
he  does  not  care,  and  consequently  he  does  not  gain  impressions 
which  will  restrain  impulses  that  when  indulged  alienate  him 
from  his  associates.  He  has  not  developed  self-restraint  in  a 
high  degree  because  he  seems  to  get  more  out  of  life  by  not 
exercising  self-restraint. 

His  brother,  on  the  contrary,  is  very  sensitive  to  the  attitudes 
of  persons  in  reaction  upon  his  conduct.  If  he  should  be  chided 
by  a  parent  or  tsacher  it  would  wound  him  deeply,  whereas 
chiding  bounds  off  his  brother's  ego  without  leaving  a  dent. 
The  younger  boy  delights  in  standing  high  in  his  school  work. 
A  grade  of  Excellent  gives  him  pleasure,  while  a  grade  of  Poor 
would  distress  him.  The  older  boy  makes  no  distinction  between 
Excellent  and  Poor.  J.  has  had  to  be  constantly  warned  that 
if  he  would  not  attend  to  his  work  he  would  be  dismissed  from 
school,  and  this  has  served  only  to  stimulate  him  sufficiently 
to  avert  the  threatened  tragedy ;  he  would  rather  stay  in  school 
than  to  go  out  in  the  world  and  earn  his  living.  The  younger 
boy  applies  himself  to  his  studies  partly  because  he  enjoys  in- 
tellectual activity  and  partly  because  by  doing  high-grade  work 
he  secures  the  good-will  of  his  teacher  and  his  parents  and  the 
admiration  of  his  classmates.  He  is  a  socially  sensitive  type  as 
compared  with  his  brother,  and  the  difference  is  unquestionably 
one  of  original  constitution.  The  younger  boy  cares  more  than 
his  brother  not  only  for  the  good-will  and  esteem  of  people,  but 
he  cares  more  also  for  good  health.  He  avoids  experiences 
which  he  thinks  will  lower  his  vitality  or  injure  his  body  as  a 
whole  or  any  of  its  members.     The  older  boy  is  indifferent  to 


i68  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

healtli,  and  so  there  is  no  check  to  his  excess  in  gratifying  appetite 
or  extremes  in  his  athletic  activities.  He  plunges  headlong  into 
everything  he  does  because  there  are  few  restraining  considera- 
tions which  seem  to  him  to  be  of  value,  while  just  the  opposite 
is  the  case  with  his  brother. 


CHAPTER   X 

ACTIVITIES  PF.CULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE 

It  was  stated  in  preceding  chapters  that  for  the  most  part 

developmental    changes   occur    gradually ;    new   interests    and 

activities  make  their  appearance,  reach  their  climax  _ 

and  subside  or  disappear  very  slowly  rather  than  pre-  formations 

cipitately.     It  is  true  that  the  developmental  process,  abruptly 

regarded  as  a  whole,  consists  of  a  series  of  metamor-  du"ng 

.  .    .        puberty 

phoses  ;  but  one  must  observe  any  interest  or  activity 

closely  and  for  a  considerable  period  in  order  to  detect  the 
transformations  which  take  place.  Possible  exceptions  to  this 
principle  are  found  when  the  child  begins  to  grasp  at  objects 
at  about  the  fourth  month  and  to  walk  and  to  talk  at  about  the 
twelfth  month.  These  accomplishments  enlarge  his  range  of 
experience  and  increase  his  power  of  communication  so  greatly 
that  abrupt  changes  in  his  interests  and  in  his  intellectual  and 
emotional  activities  may  be  noted.  But  the  most  marked 
exception  to  the  rule  of  gradual  transformation  in  development 
occurs  in  the  early  years  of  the  adolescent  period.  The  years 
between  eleven  or  twelve  and  sixteen  or  seventeen  may  properly 
be  regarded  as  constituting  a  genuine  epoch  in  human  develop- 
ment. One  can  almost  see  important  metamorphoses  taking 
place  at  this  time ;  within  the  space  of  a  few  weeks  often  one 
may  note  conspicuous  physical  as  well  as  intellectual  and  tem- 
peramental changes. 

All  observers  have  called  attention  to  the  very  rapid  increase 
first  in  height  and  a  little  later  in  weight  of  both  boys  and  girls 

169 


170 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 


nC5 


between  the  ages  of  eleven  and  sixteen.  Normally  a  jrirl  gains 
from  two  to  four  times  as  much  in  height  and  in  weight  between 
the  ages  of  eleven  and  fourteen  as  she  did  in  any  preceding  three 
years  except  the  first  three.     The  boy  gains  from  two  to  five 

times  as  much  in  height 
and  in  weight  between  his 
twelfth  and  his  fifteenth 
year  as  he  did  in  any 
preceding  period  except 
the  first  three  years.  Even 
untrained  observers  fre- 
quently comment  on  the 
abrupt  transformations 
that  take  place  during  this 
period  in  the  appearance 
of  the  features,  in  the 
proportional  relations  of 
the  bodily  members,  in  the 
voice,  and  in  the  individ- 
ual's interests  and  be- 
havior. Parents  who  are 
with  their  children  con- 
stantly during  this  transi- 
tion period  often  remark 
upon  the  rapidity  of  the 
changes  which  occur  right 
under  their  eye.  The  fea- 
tures are  remodeled  so 
swiftly  that  it  is  frequently 
difficult  to  recognize  a  boy  or  a  girl  when  one  has  not  seen  him  or 
her  for  six  months.  And  these  changes  which  can  be  observed 
with  the  naked  eye,  so  to  speak,  are  no  less  profound  than  are  the 
developments  which  take  place  internally.     The  respiratory  sys- 


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Fig.  26.  —  Curves  showing  the  rate  of  annual 
increase  in  endurance,  vital  capacity,  weight  and 
grip  of  right  hand.     (See  exercise  6,  page  345.) 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE  171 

tern,  the  digestive  system,  the  muscuhir  system  and  particularly 
the  nervous  system  undergo  metamorphoses  much  as  do  the 
features  or  the  voice. 

These  familiar  phenomena  of  puberty  are  mentioned  by  way 
of  introduction  to  the  transformations  which  occur  in  the  in- 
terests and  activities  of  boys  and  girls  during  early  g^yg  j^yj^ 
adolescence.  At  the  onset  of  this  epoch  the  individ-  s^^es 
ual  feels  a  craving  for  association  with  members  of  his  own  sex 
and  persons  of  his  own  age  and  stage  of  development.  The  boy 
longs  at  this  time  to  become  a  member  of  a  group  which  has  a 
leader  and  some  form  of  organization.  Usually  there  are  secrets 
which  are  imposed  upon  all  the  members  of  the  group.  Loyalty 
on  the  part  of  each  member  to  the  group  as  a  whole  is  the 
fundamental  requirement  for  continued  membership.  Instinc- 
tively these  boy  groups  feel  that  their  activities  will  be  hostile 
to  the  rules  and  conventions  of  the  community  in  which  they 
operate,  and  so  the  first  requirement  of  membership  is  the  sacri- 
fice if  need  be  of  individual  interest  and  welfare  for  the  protection 
and  perpetuity  of  the  group.  When  the  group  has  been  found 
guilty  of  any  misdemeanor,  as  stealing  or  breaking  into  houses  or 
setting  fire  to  buildings,  and  one  member  is  caught,  he  must  endure 
severe  pains  and  penalties  rather  than  divulge  the  names  of  his 
"pals"  or  reveal  the  purposes  and  secrets  of  the  organization. 
All  boys  from  thirteen  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age  normally 
belong  to  gangs  if  there  are  a  sufficient  number  of  boys  in  the 
community  who  are  passing  through  the  gang-forming  period. 
And  a  boy  who  is  a  member  of  a  gang  is  more  confidential  with 
his  comrades  than  he  is  with  his  father,  mother,  brothers  or 
sisters.  He  feels  that  his  interests  can  be  gratified  more  fully 
by  the  aid  of  the  gang  than  of  the  home,  the  school  or  the 
church ;  these  latter  institutions  tend  either  directly  or  in- 
directly to  suppress  the  activities  in  which  he  is  principally 
interested. 


172  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

The  boy  is  at  this  time  interested  chiefly  in  tribal  activities. 
His  remote  ancestors  hunted  and  fished  for  a  livelihood  ;  but 
The  boy  is  he  hunts  and  fishes  for  '"sport."  With  pride  he  dis- 
in'^ba?^  plays  the  product  of  his  hunting  and  fishing  as 
activities  evidence  of  his  cunning  and  skill  in  woodcraft  and 
seacraft.  The  boy  finds  but  Httle  pleasure  in  hunting  and 
fishing  alone.  These  are  cooperative  activities.  If  the  gang 
would  not  hunt  or  fish  the  individual  boy  would  not  persist  in  it. 
There  are  other  activities  in  which  the  gang  indulges  that 
resemble  the  enterprises  of  remote  times.     Gangs  like  to  wander 

through  the  woods  and  start  up  wild  life  or  pry  into 
tribal  unusual  situations  of  any  kind.     They  take  delight 

wurflourish  iri  robbing  birds'  nests  and  in  building  fires  in  the 
only  in  the     woods.     They  like   to  go  into  the  fields  or  on  the 

banks  of  a  stream  or  in  the  woods  and  make  a  camp, 
cook  their  food  over  a  camp  fire,  and  tell  and  listen  to  stories 
of  adventure  and  daring.  For  the  time  being  they  are  nature 
men  in  their  interests  and  their  activities.  But  they  exhibit 
these  traits  in  the  gang  only.  Break  up  the  gang  and  the  in- 
dividual boy's  interests  in  tribal  activities  will  practically  dis- 
appear. He  will  not  go  oflf  by  himself  and  make  a  camp  or 
wander  through  the  woods ;  on  the  contrary  he  will  stay  near 
his  home  as  though  he  felt  the  need  of  close  companionship  with 
someone.  As  a  member  of  a  gang  he  will  manifest  but  little 
interest  in  reading  unless  it  be  stories  of  adventure  and  combat. 
He  will  not  be  interested  in  quiet  games.  The  members  of  a 
gang  rarely  if  ever  play  checkers,  "authors"  or  similar  games; 
but  when  a  boy  is  separated  from  the  gang  he  will  often  enjoy 
reading  and  quiet  games.  As  an  individual  the  adolescent's 
interests  will  be  mainly  in  accord  with  the  requirements  of 
present-day  life ;  but  as  a  member  of  a  gang  his  impulses  will 
lead  him  back  into  earlier  modes  of  life.  A  boy  in  the  early 
teens  can  easily  adapt  himself  to  the  restraints  and  conventions 


ACTIVITIES   TECULIAR   TO  ADOLESCENCE  173 

of  his  social  cnvironnicnl  when  his  primitive  impulses  are  not 
stimulated  by  membership  in  a  gang.  In  his  study  of  mob 
psychology  LeBon  found  what  many  observers  have  noted,  — 
that  when  an  individual  is  in  a  crowd  his  tribal  impulses  tend  to 
gain  mastery  over  activities  suggested  by  and  adapted  to  his 
immediate  environment.  A  cultivated  man  will  sometimes 
be  guilty  of  acts  in  a  crowd  which  he  could  effectively  restrain 
when  alone.  A  mob  is  usually  dominated  by  primitive  interests ; 
those  who  are  responsible  for  preserving  the  peace  on  the  streets 
of  a  town  or  city  or  in  a  schoolhouse  or  on  a  playground  under- 
stand this  very  well. 

A  boy  will  be  more  completely  weaned  from  his  immediate 
environment  if  he  is  associated  with  twenty-five  boys  in  a  gang, 
all  of  whom  are  in  the  same  period  of  development  ^^^  larger 
as  himself,  than  if    there  are  only  three  boys.      It  ^^  e^g 

,         the  more 

requires  large  numbers  fully  to  counteract  the  m-  tribal  its 
fluence  of  an  environment  which  tends  to  repress  "^*®'"®^*^ 
primitive  impulses.  The  adolescent  boy  is  responsive  on  the 
one  side  to  promptings  that  have  come  from  remote  times,  and 
on  the  other  side  to  constant  suggestion  from  his  present-day 
environment.  All  that  the  boy  hears  in  the  home,  in  the  school 
and  in  the  church  impresses  the  importance  of  being  courteous, 
of  inhibiting  profane  and  obscene  language,  of  being  cleanly, 
of  utilizing  his  time  so  as  to  improve  his  mind,  of  not  disturbing 
others  who  are  attending  to  their  own  affairs,  of  not  destroying 
property  or  taking  the  possessions  of  others,  and  so  on.  Wher- 
ever he  goes  he  sees  and  hears  these  lessons  repeated  and  they 
constitute  barriers  in  the  way  of  indulging  his  impulses.  But 
when  he  is  with  his  gang  he  forgets  the  lessons  impressed  upon 
him  in  home,  school  and  church  because  his  primitive  actions 
are  indorsed  now  instead  of  condemned  and  opposed.  He 
stands  well  with  the  gang  when  he  is  completely  primitive. 
Gangs  usually  have  initiation  ceremonies  which  stress  the  value 


174  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

of  tribal  qualities.  A  boy  is  often  not  admitted  to  membership 
in  a  gang  unless  he  has  to  his  credit  several  thefts,  unless  he  can 
swear  fluently,  unless  he  can  smoke  and  often  unless  he  can  chew 
tobacco.  Also  he  must  prove  that  he  has  muscular  strength 
and  endurance  and  courage.  When  the  gang  is  in  conflict  with 
organized  society  its  members  must  all  have  good  stuff  in  them 
or  else  the  gang  will  break  up  or  be  broken  up,  and  the  individual 
members  may  suffer  because  of  the  weakness  of  any  one  member. 

The  primitive  character  of  gang  activities  is  revealed  in 
nothing  more  strikingly  than  in  the  importance  attached  to 
prowess  in  physical  contests,  — •  in  fighting,  wrestling, 
promotes  '' scuflfling,"  ''plaguing"  people,  and  so  on.  A  boy  in 
pugnaci  y  qj.(\qi  to  become  a  member  of  a  gang  must  above  every- 
thing else  be  a  good  fighter.  He  must  be  ready  to  defend  him- 
self at  the  drop  of  the  hat,  no  matter  who  his  assailant  may  be. 
If  he  is  struck  and  if  he  knows  that  he  will  be  severely  damaged 
if  he  strikes  back,  he  must  nevertheless  "stand  up  for  his  rights." 
The  reader  will  of  course  recognize  that  this  is  a  fundamental 
trait  of  primitive  man ;  physical  survival  required  that  early 
man  should  both  resent  and  resist  the  aggression  of  anyone, 
weak  or  powerful. 

Usually  one  gang  in  a  town  or  city  will  deliberately  plan 
combats  with  other  gangs ;  the  existence  of  a  gang  anywhere  in 
a  community  is  a  challenge  to  all  the  other  gangs.  Eliminate 
wholly  the  factor  of  combat  and  a  gang  would  tend  to  disinte- 
grate, unless  it  should  be  engaged  in  migratory  or  predatory 
activities.  If  there  is  no  group  with  which  a  gang  can  engage 
in  warfare,  then  the  individuals  of  the  gang  will  fight  among 
themselves.  When  there  is  an  enemy  at  the  gates  they  will  all 
hang  together,  but  when  there  is  no  danger  from  without  they 
will  break  up  into  cliques. 

There  never  was  a  gang  probably  in  which  there  was  not 
constant  wrestling  and  "scuffling"  when  the  members  were  not 


ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR   TO  ADOLESCENCE  175 

engaged  in  other  absorbing  pursuits.  If  a  boy  is  within  arm's  reach 
of  another  boy  he  is  a  constant  challenge  for  muscular  contest 
of  some  sort.  It  is  rare  to  have  a  group  of  boys  in  Muscular 
the  early  teens  together  for  ten  minutes  at  a  time  *=°'^*®^*^ 
without  physical  contests  of  some  kind  developing  among  them. 
The  only  way  to  prevent  such  contests  is  to  capture  the  attention 
of  the  boys  so  that  their  energies  will  be  diverted  from  their 
muscles,  and  so  that  they  will  not  be  conscious  of  the  presence  of 
boys  near  them. 

It  was  intimated  above  that  the  activities  of  the  typical  gang 
are  in  considerable  part  in  conflict  with  the  rules,  regulations, 
conventions    and  institutions    of    organized    society.   „     ,. 

Stealing 

One  is  impressed  with  this  fact  when  he  notes  the 
extent  to  which  gangs  make  depredations  upon  property  and 
annoy  and  hector  people  who  do  them  no  harm.  Practically 
all  gangs  engage  in  stealing ;  the  gang  that  can  make  the  most 
daring  thefts  is  envied  by  all  other  gangs  that  learn  about  it. 
It  is  impossible  to  tell  in  many  instances  whether  goods  are 
stolen  because  they  are  desired  by  the  thieves  or  whether  they 
are  stolen  for  the  sake  of  accomplishing  a  courageous  feat.  It 
is  universally  true  that  a  member  of  a  gang  who  makes  a  daring 
theft  and  is  successful  in  it  regards  it  as  a  very  distinct  accom- 
plishment ;  he  boasts  about  it ;  his  fellows  celebrate  his  courage 
and  skill,  and  he  is  altogether  a  marked  individual  in  the  group. 
The  records  of  juvenile  courts  show  an  almost  endless  variety 
of  objects  that  gangs  steal,  —  everything  that  is  movable  and 
that  they  stand  a  good  chance  of  getting  away  with.  If  they  pass 
a  farm  they  will  steal  fruit  or  eggs,  or  catch  chickens  and  wring 
their  necks.  They  will  steal  tools,  nails,  leather  straps,  old 
pieces  of  iron,  discarded  wheels  of  carts,  and  so  on  at  length. 
If  they  find  a  house  vacant,  but  with  furniture  in  it,  they  will 
force  a  door  or  a  window  and  take  everything  they  can  carry 
away.     In  cities  they  will  steal  fruit  from  stands  and  peddlers' 


176  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

c;lrl^.  They  will  [;<)  into  stores,  and  while  the  clerks  are  not 
looking  they  will  "snitch"  anything  they  find  loose.  They  will, 
of  course,  steal  anything  they  can  eat,  such  as  candy  or  fruit 
or  cakes  and  the  like,  more  generally  than  other  objects.  Next 
they  will  steal  firearms  and  then  tools,  and  lastly  articles  of 
clothing  and  decoration.  But  they  will  not  study  the  usefulness 
of  any  article  carefully.  They  will  take  it  along  on  the  chance 
that  they  can  make  some  use  of  it.  The  rule  seems  to  be  — 
take  everything  that  can  be  seized,  for  it  may  be  of  use  some  time. 
The  instinct  of  acquisition  is  in  part  responsible  for  the  steal- 
ing activities  of  gangs.  This  instinct  is,  however,  revealed  in 
The  instinct  ^^her  ways  than  in  stealing.  The  members  of  a  gang 
of  acquis!-  will  collect  objects  which  they  have  not  stolen,  such 
as  butterflies,  plants,  birds'  eggs,  pieces  of  wood, 
horseshoes  found  on  the  street,  and  indeed  almost  any  object 
which  can  be  easily  conveyed  to  their  rendezvous.  As  a  rule, 
these  objects  are  kept  in  gang  headquarters,  though  this  is  not 
always  the  case.  One  member  of  a  gang  may  feel  the  instinct 
of  acquisition  so  profoundly  that  he  will  keep  what  he  collects 
for  himself  even  though  he  is  closely  attached  to  the  members  of 
the  group.  One  sees  here  the  beginning  of  the  interest  in  private 
property,  whereby  the  individual  uses  what  he  acquires  for  his 
own  advantage  and  resists  the  encroachments  of  all  others, 
even  his  pals,  upon  his  accumulation.  This  merely  acquisitive 
instinct  which  leads  to  the  collecting  of  all  kinds  of  "junk" 
reaches  its  height  normally  between  thirteen  and  fifteen.  By 
the  age  of  seventeen  it  subsides ;  and  it  often  disappears  com- 
pletely at  about  this  age.  This  is  not  to  say  that  the  eighteen- 
year-old  individual  will  not  be  interested  in  acquiring  property. 
But  from  the  eighteenth  year  on  his  acquisitions  will  be  confined 
largely  to  objects  which  have  real  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  people 
in  the  community.  He  will  now  acquire  articles  of  dress,  —  ties, 
socks,  shoes,  hats,  and  even  suits  of  clothing.     He  will  collect 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE  177 

useful  objects  such  as  bicycles,  tools,  electrical  apparatus, 
fountain  pens,  and  so  on.  In  due  course  he  will  manifest 
an  interest  in  acquiring  books  and  works  of  art,  but  this 
interest  comes  last  in  the  development  of  the  instinct  of 
acquisition. 

The  tribal  character  of  gang  activities  is  illustrated  strikingly 
in  the  tendency  of  members  of  a  gang  to  destroy  property 
which  they  cannot  steal.  They  will  ransack  a  vacant  Destruction 
house  and  before  they  leave  it  they  may  break  every  °^  P^'>P^'^y 
window.  They  may  even  batter  down  the  doors.  Then  when 
they  make  their  escape  they  will  be  likely  to  celebrate  their 
achievement  by  yelling  boisterously  and  defiantly.  Sometimes 
gangs  will  go  so  far  as  to  set  fire  to  unoccupied  buildings,  partly 
no  doubt  for  the  purpose  of  observing  the  flames ;  but  they  seem 
also  to  find  pleasure  in  wantonly  destroying  a  house  or  barn  or 
shed.  When  questioned  concerning  their  motives,  boys  who 
are  guilty  of  incendiarism  seem  unable  to  explain  their  abnormal 
interest  except  to  say  that  they  "like  to  see  things  burn  down." 
When  asked  if  they  do  not  appreciate  that  when  they  set  fire 
to  buildings  they  are  destroying  what  it  cost  some  one  a  good 
deal  of  money  and  effort  to  build,  they  show  that  such  thoughts 
never  enter  their  minds.  The  instinct  to  destroy  is  so  profound 
that  it  apparently  dislodges,  temporarily  at  any  rate,  all  they 
have  heard  or  been  taught  regarding  the  meaning  and  value 
of  property  and  its  inviolability.  One  can  account  for  this 
strange  instinct  only  by  assuming  that  it  is  reminiscent  of  the 
tribal  practice  of  destroying  all  the  property  of  rival  tribes  in 
order  to  weaken  their  enemies.  The  possession  of  huts,  tents 
and  the  like  by  any  people  is  of  advantage  in  the  struggle  for 
supremacy,  and  it  is  therefore  imperative  that  a  rival  tribe 
should  destroy  them  whenever  possible.  This  trait  is  manifested 
occasionally  by  advanced  nations,  as  when  Germany  during  the 
World  War,   in   violation   of  international   law,   destroyed   the 


178  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

property  of  the  countries  which  it  had  overrun  in  order  to  weaken 
the  people  with  whom  it  was  in  conflict. 

Gangs  not  only  prey  upon  the  property  of  people ;  they  also 
harass  the  people  themselves.  A  considerable  part  of  the  activ- 
Piaguing  ities  of  typical  gangs  have  relation  to  plaguing  people, 
people  They    throw   snowballs   at  them  or   call    them    hu- 

miliating names  if  they  have  any  pecuHar  characteristics  of 
features  or  body  or  manner  of  walking  and  the  like.  They 
ring  door-bells,  rap  on  windows,  throw  eggs  or  rotten  fruit 
at  peddlers  or  teachers  or  ministers,  conceal  bricks  in  paper 
bags  and  put  them  on  the  sidewalk  so  that  men  will  kick  at  them, 
put  salt  in  one's  milk  or  thistles  in  one's  bed,  and  so  on  to 
any  length.  They  will  go  as  far  as  they  dare  in  making  life  un- 
comfortable for  persons  who  seem  to  be  conventional  or  well- 
behaved.  When  questioned  regarding  their  motive  in  these 
hectoring  activities  they  are  usually  not  able  to  give  a  definite 
answer.  Whenever  they  respond  at  all  they  generally  say  that 
they  want  to  see  what  will  happen  or  they  like  to  have  the  one 
who  is  annoyed  chase  them. 

It  is  rare  that  boys  who  engage  in  these  stealing,  destruc- 
tive and  plaguing  activities  do  not  use  profanity.  The  boy 
who  is  most  vigorous  and  vociferous  in  swearing  and 
and  the  use  cursing,  other  things  being  equal,  will  win  the  hom- 
°o  handTn  ^S^  °^  ^^^  associates  because  he  impresses  them  as  be- 
hand  with      ing  a  f cllow  of  great  force  and  courage  who  can  carry 

StC£l.lill£f    etc  * 

'  ■  his  plans  through  to  a  successful  issue.  A  swearmg 
boy  is  more  to  be  feared  as  a  rule  than  a  non-swearing  one.  The 
enterprises  in  which  the  gang  engages  can  be  carried  on  best 
apparently  by  boys  whose  character  requires  profanity  in  order 
to  be  adequately  exprcs.sed.  Dare-deviltry  and  swearing  and 
cursing  seem  aspects  of  the  same  general  trait. 

Also  the  use  of  tobacco  and  profanity  often  go  hand  in  hand. 
Almost  never  does  one  see  a  profane  boy  of  the  gang  age  who 


ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE  179 

is  not  a  smoker  if  he  can  secure  cigarettes  or  tobacco  in  any  form, 
and  it  is  also  rare  to  find  a  boy  who  uses  tobacco  who  is  not 
profane.  Tobacco  may  have  a  physiological  effect  on  a  boy  which 
reduces  restraint  and  liberates  the  rougher  impulses  which  can 
be  better  expressed  by  profanity  than  by  conventional  speech. 
But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  use  of  tobacco  and  profanity 
are  both  phases  of  a  general  trait  of  character  which  asserts 
itself  in  opposition  to  the  rules,  regulations  and  conventions  of 
organized  society.  Both  swearing  and  smoking  by  boys  in  the 
early  teens  are  condemned  by  the  home  and  the  school  and  the 
church,  and  the  boy  who  is  hostile  to  these  institutions  will 
manifest  his  hostility  by  practicing  the  activities  which  they 
condemn.  Even  if  he  does  not  feel  antagonism  to  social  in- 
stitutions when  he  begins  to  smoke  and  to  swear,  still  as  he  be- 
comes proficient  in  these  arts  he  will  attract  to  himself  boys  who 
will  awaken  and  strengthen  his  opposition  to  the  conventions 
and  customs  of  adult  society. 

Fortunately  not  all  of  the  interests  of  the  gang  run  counter 
to  the  conventions  and  institutions  of  adult  society.  Truancy 
is  an  illustration  of  a  gang  activity  which  is  on  the 
border  hne  between  the  activities  that  are  com- 
mended by  society  and  those  that  are  condemned  by  it.  When 
truancy  takes  the  form  of  running  away  from  school,  then  it  is  a 
violation  of  rules  and  regulations  insisted  upon  by  the  school 
and  the  home.  But  frequently  truancy  is  manifested  simply  in 
roaming  the  country  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays  or  after  hours 
on  regular  school  days.  Often  boys  do  no  harm  on  these  hikes ; 
they  merely  wander  about  as  though  they  found  pleasure  in 
visiting  new  places,  in  the  hope  probably  that  some  interesting 
event  may  happen  at  any  moment  if  they  will  keep  on  the  move. 
If  they  do  not  encounter  bears  or  Indians  or  start  up  rabbits 
or  birds,  they  may  at  least  find  peculiar  looking  stones  or  holes 
dug  in  the  earth  or  the  remains  of  camping  parties  in  the  woods, 


i8o  MENTAL   DKXELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

and  so  on.  Ordinarily,  trophies  are  brought  back  from  these 
roaming  expeditions,  and  are  added  to  the  collections  of  the  gang 
as  a  whole  or  of  individual  members.  This  impulse  to  roam 
about,  particularly  in  the  woods  and  along  the  banks  of  streams, 
seems  to  be  reminiscent  of  the  nomadic  periods  in  race  devel- 
opment. Tramps  and  gypsies  still  retain  the  once  universal 
practice  of  wandering  from  place  to  place  in  search  of  food, 
protection  and  diversion  that  can  be  secured  without  systematic 
labor.  In  remote  times  savage  tribes  were  constantly  on  the 
go,  partly  because  of  the  need  of  finding  new  hunting  grounds 
or  fresh  waters  for  fishing,  and  partly  also  because  of  the  relentless 
encroachments  of  enemies.  The  impulse  to  wander  away  from 
home  environments  is  seen  among  animals  and  birds  as  well  as 
among  races  of  men.  Especially  is  this  true  with  the  young, 
when  the  age  arrives  when  they  are  able  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves ;  then  they  are  seized  with  a  sort  of  madness  to  escape 
from  the  nest  or  the  lair  or  the  den.  The  wide  distribution  of 
animals  as  well  as  men  over  the  face  of  the  earth  is  dependent 
in  a  measure  upon  this  deep-seated  trait. 

Swimming  is  another  activity  which  is  on  the  border  line  be- 
tween the  permissible  and  the  forbidden  activities  of  the  early 
teens.  The  impulse  to  play  in  the  water  is  very  pro- 
found, and  it  will  be  gratified  even  in  the  face  of  certain 
punishment  by  the  teacher,  the  parent  or  the  municipal  officers. 
Boys  in  the  gang  age  will  take  many  chances  in  respect  to  their 
well-being  and  safety  in  indulging  the  passion  to  swim.  Gangs 
can  be  seen  setting  out  toward  swimming-holes  as  soon  as  the 
ice  breaks  up  in  the  spring,  and  they  will  be  found  there  until 
late  in  the  fall.  The  fascination  of  the  swimming-hole  is  at 
the  bottom  of  many  of  the  annoying  irregularities  of  boys  in 
conforming  to  the  regulations  of  the  home  and  the  school. 

Some  of  the  activities  encouraged  by  gangs  meet  with  the 
approval  of  adults.     One  gang  will  compete  with  another  one  in 


ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE  i8i 

games,  running  matches  of  all  kinds,  —  long-distance  running, 
sprinting,  hurdling,  cross-country  running,  "Hare  and  Hounds," 
"Fox  and  Geese,"  "Steeple  Chase"  and  the  like,  competition 
They  will  also  compete  in  jumping  matches,  —  long  *°  games 
jump,  high  jump,  vaulting,  hopping  on  one  foot  and  then  on  the 
other,  then  alternating,  then  combining  hopping  and  jumping 
and  vaulting.  They  will  compete  in  games  like  "Leap-frog," 
varying  the  conditions  of  each  game  so  as  to  make  it  as  complex 
as  possible.  They  will  also  have  throwing  contests,  —  throwing 
stones  with  the  hand  and  with  sling-shots,  throwing  snow-balls, 
and  the  like.  In  short,  gangs  often  spend  their  time  quite 
largely  in  competing  among  themselves  and  with  other  gangs  in 
every  kind  of  contest  they  can  devise  which  will  test  physical 
skill,  strength,  endurance  and  courage. 

We  should  turn  our  attention  now  for  a  moment  to  the 
activities  of  girl  groups  in  the  early  teens.  Girls  do  not  develop 
gangs  in  the  early  teens ;  they  do  not  very  early  develop  or- 
ganized groups  of  any  kind  with  leaders  and  rigid  require- 
ments for  membership  and  rules  of  order.  They  ^.^.j^  ^^^^ 
form  groups  as  a  rule  for  social  and  charitable  pur-   "  sets  " 

whicli  flr6 

poses.  But  only  those  girls  are  likely  to  form  a  group  only  loosely 
whose  parents  have  the  same  social  status  in  the  com-  organized 
munity.  A  gang  of  boys  will  admit  any  boy  who  promises  to 
make  a  good  gangster ;  but  a  group  of  girls  may  not  take  in  any 
girl  who  promises  to  be  a  good  group  member  unless  her  family 
has  as  good  social  standing  as  the  families  of  the  members  who 
constitute  the  group. 

The  activities  of  girls  in  their  clubs  are  much  less  varied  than 
are  the  activities  of  boys  in  their  gangs.  Girls'  societies  attract 
less  attention  than  gangs  because  their  activities  do  not  jeopar- 
dize the  laws  and  institutions  in  the  community.  Adults  usually 
approve  of  the  group  activities  of  young  girls,  for  the  girls  play 
with  their    dolls,  visit    one  another  and    talk  about   their  ex- 


l82 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


pcriences  in  training  the  dolls,  providing  them  with  proper 
clothing  for  all  social  occasions,  and  the  like.  Girls  much  more 
readily  than  boys  engage  in  charitable  work  in  the  community; 
they  make  clothing  for  needy  children ;  they  help  at  charity 
fairs ;  they  assist  in  church  functions ;  in  brief,  they  easily,  in 
comparison  with  boys,  adapt  themselves  to  the  serious  activities 
of  adults. 


Fig.  27.  —  A  typical  scene  in  an  Am.  li.  an  'l.im  <■  li.ill-       lli 

period.     (See  e.\erci.se  i.S,  page  o5i-) 


udulescent 


It  was  intimated  at  the  outset  of  this  chapter  that  during  the 
early  teens  profound    physiological,  intellectual  and  emotional 
changes  occur.     The  most  important  development  of 
groSgout    this  period  is  the  rapid    maturing  of    sex  function, 
of  sex  The    activities    of    boys    by    the    age    of    seventeen 

and  girls  by  sixteen  are  determined  quite  largely  by 
the  impulses  growing  out  of  sex  interests.  The  girl  abandons 
doll  play  and  gives  her  attention  largely  to  personal  improve- 
ment.    Adornment  occupies  the  first  place  in  the  girl's  attention. 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE 


183 


The  topics  which  girls  of  sixteen  talk  about  concern  largely 
problems  of  adornment  and  their  relations  to  the  opposite  sex. 
Dancing  now  makes  a  stronger  appeal  to  the  girl  than  any  other 
activity.  Some  girls  take  an  interest  in  basket  ball,  hockey, 
skating,  swimming,  hiking  and  the  like,  but  ordinarily  they  must 
be  encouraged  by  parents 
and  teachers  to  keep  up 
their  interest  in  such  ac- 
tivities. Left  to  them- 
selves their  thoughts  will 
center  mainly  around  the 
dance  and  any  activities 
which  will  gratify  the  sex 
interest  in  conformity 
with  the  conventions  and 
restraints  imposed  by  so- 
ciety. 

Normally  a  boy's  in- 
terest in  the  opposite  sex 
reaches  its  height  at  about 
eighteen.  At  twelve  he 
cannot  be  induced  to  call 
on  a  girl  for  a  visit, 
though  he  will  play  with 
her  if  she  can  play  a  good 
game.  But  at  eighteen 
he  is  not  interested  primarily  in  her  ability  to  play  any  game. 
He  is  concerned  solely  with  her  personal  characteristics,  and  this 
gives  a  bent  to  all  his  activities  in  which  sex  relation  plays  a  part. 

Boys  in  the  later  teens  do  not  abandon  all  their  pubertal 
interests  and  activities,  but  these  latter  are  much  less  prominent 
at  eighteen  than  they  were  at  fourteen.  They  like  games  such 
as  baseball,  football,  basket  ball,  ])oat  races  and  the  like,  mainly 


Fig.  28.  —  Boys  in  the  early  adolescent  period. 
(See  exercise  22,  page  334.) 


i84  MENTAL   UE\  ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

because  in  all  of  these  games  one  team  is  pitted  against  another 
team.  At  eighteen  and  afterward  games  must  be  built  around 
teams  in  order  to  make  a  strong  appeal.  There  is  an  interest 
in  team  activity  at  thirteen,  but  it  is  not  nearly  so  pronounced  as 
it  is  a  few  years  later. 

By  the  age  of  sixteen,  sometimes  earlier,  boys  feel  a  strong 

impulse  to  engage  in  work  which  will  produce  funds.     They  want 

to  get  a  "job."     The  basis  of  this  interest  is  partly  in 

Eagerness  o  j  t.  j     ^ 

to  find  a  their  appreciation  of  the  value  of  money,  but  even  if 
^°  they  do  not  make  much  money  they  will  still  respond 

to  the  call  to  get  a  job  if  one  can  be  secured.  The  home-making 
instinct  is  probably  mainly  responsible  for  the  boy's  eagerness 
to  earn  money.  Then,  too,  the  sixteen-year-old  boy  is  beginning 
to  look  forward  to  his  future  work  and  he  sees,  dimly  of  course 
at  first,  that  it  is  worth  while  to  be  able  to  hold  down  a  job. 
The  boy  _who  can  do  this  has  some  claim  to  be  regarded  as  a  man ; 
and  he  desires  now  not  to  be  classed  with  twelve-  or  thirteen-year- 
olds  but  with  those  who  are  farther  along  toward  manhood  than 
he  is  himself. 


PART   TWO 
EDUCATIONAL   INTERPRETATIONS 


CHAPTER   XI 
DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:   GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 

The  preceding  discussion  should  have  impressed   the   prin- 
ciple  that  dynamic  experience  is  essential   to   the  gaining  of 
clear,  definite,  effective  ideas  relating  either  to  the 
social  or  the  natural  environment.     To  know  a  thing  meaning 
means  first  and  in  large  part  that  one  understands  <>*  dynamic 

.  .  education 

what  can  be  done  with  it  or  what  it  can  do.  Thus,  I 
cannot  be  said  to  know  a  horse  until  I  have  tried  to  manage 
horses  —  measured  my  muscles  against  theirs,  and  had  vital 
relations  with  them.  Simply  looking  at  a  horse  or  reading  about 
it  cannot  give  me  effective  knowledge  regarding  it.  So  in  order 
that  the  individual  may  come  into  harmonious  relations  with 
the  world  about  him  he  must  deal  with  it  first  in  a  concrete, 
dynamic  way;  he  must  have  varied  contact  and  give-and-take 
relations  with  it. 

To  comprehend  adequately  the  characteristics  of  any  occupa- 
tion or  activity,  one  must  actually  reproduce  the  movements 
and    adjustments    of    that    activity    or    occupation. 
Merely  to  read  about  the  work  of  the  blacksmith  or  child  is 
carpenter  or  farmer,  or  even  to  look  at  them  while  fnterpre/'' 
they  are  busy  in  their  several  ways,  or  to  listen  to  the  world 
them  describe  their  daily  round  of  duties  will  yield  at 
best  only  vague  and  blurred  outlines  of  their  functions ;    but 
when  a  pupil  cultivates  a  garden  or  makes  a  hand-sled  or  fashions 
into  desired  shape  a  piece  of  iron,  —  these  and  other  like  tasks 
that  the  young  take  delight  in  performing  will  serve  best  to 
give  real  and  accurate  knowledge  of  these  activities. 

This  truth  has  long  been  recognized  by  students  of  educa- 
tion.    From  the  time  of  Locke  to  the  present,  educational  re- 

187 


i88  MENIAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

formers  have  pointed  out  the  shortcomings  of  verbal  teach- 
ing. In  the  words  of  Rousseau,  —  "In  any  study,  words  that 
represent  things  are  nothing  without  the  ideas  of  the  things 
they  represent.  We,  however,  Hmit  children  to  these  signs  with- 
out ever  being  able  to  make  them  understand  the  things  repre- 
sented. We  think  we  are  teaching  the  child  the  description 
of  the  earth,  when  he  is  merely  learning  maps.  We  teach  him 
the  names  of  cities,  countries,  rivers ;  he  has  no  idea  that  they 
exist  anywhere  but  on  the  map  we  use  in  pointing  them  out 
to  him." 

But  we  have  already  entered  upon  what  might  be  called  the 
era  of  dynamic  educational  method.  In  the  modern  kinder- 
garten, for  example,  the  pupil  devotes  much  of  his  time  to  con- 
structive activities  that  are  planned  to  meet  his  everyday  needs. 
A  well  conducted  kindergarten  is  a  place  of  testing,  of  experi- 
menting, of  constructing,  of  practicing  in  play  the  serious  enter- 
prises of  later  life.  The  pupil  does  not  spend  his  time  simply 
memorizing  the  names  of  things ;  he  works  with  the  things 
themselves.  He  may  not  be  able  to  read  or  write  the  words 
clay,  hammer,  knife,  flower,  and  so  on,  but  it  is  planned  that 
he  should  come  to  know  these  things  by  working  with  them 
directly.  Again,  the  cordial  welcome  which  our  people  have 
given  the  Montessori  methods  indicates  that  we  appreciate  a 
system  of  teaching  and  training  based  on  the  dynamic  nature 
and  needs  of  the  young. 

In  the  "Houses  of  Childhood"  the  children  are  always  doing; 
they  arc  not  required  to  sit  in  seats  and  memorize  words.  They 
The  are  engaged  in  buttoning  and  lacing  frames,  perform- 

dynamic        jj^g  g^^,]^  g^(,|.g  g^g  ^^^y  j^^^^i  ^q  perform  in  buttoning 

illustrated  and  unbuttoning  their  own  clothes  and  in  lacing  and 

Montessori  unlacing  their  shoes.     They  build  towers  with  blocks 

schools  f)f  varying  sizes.     They  match  colored  .spools.     They 

use  their  fingers  to  trace  letters  or  geometrical   figures  or  to 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION:     GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       189 

measure  distances.  They  employ  their  muscles  to  estimate 
the  relative  weight  of  different  objects.  They  are  bUndfolded 
and  then  fit  geometrical  inserts  into  their  proper  forms,  and  in 
this  way  they  must  discover  through  feeling  the  characteristics 
and  relations  of  different  forms.  They  learn  to  read  in  part  by 
constructing  words  from  letters  cut  out  of  cardboard.  They 
learn  to  write  by  tracing  words  on  the  sand  or  the  floor  or  the 
blackboard. 

The  Montessori  system  is  based  on  the  principle  that  the  child 
can  learn  only  through  sense  activity  and  motor  action.  Dr. 
Montessori  did  not  discover  this  fundamental  principle  of  learn- 
ing. Every  serious  student  of  childhood  and  education  from 
Locke  to  the  people  of  our  own  day  has  emphasized  it.  Dr. 
Montessori  has  applied  the  principle  skillfully  in  devising  appa- 
ratus which  exercises  the  senses  and  stimulates  constructive 
activities.  She  is  not  a  "discoverer"  or  a  "wonder-worker"  ; 
she  is  simply  a  clever  and  resourceful  teacher  who  is  familiar 
with  what  many  investigators  have  done  and  many  teachers 
have  accomplished ;  and  she  has  made  some  advance  upon 
what  others  have  achieved  in  the  practical  training  of  young 
children. 

The  Montessori  apparatus  has  been  regarded  by  some  as 
possessing  mystic  value.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to  have  this 
apparatus  in  order  to  apply  the  Montessori  principles.  Any 
ordinary  home  or  school  could  afford  children  much  of  the  sen- 
sory and  motor  experience  that  can  be  gained  from  the  Montes- 
sori apparatus.  This  apparatus  is  designed  to  give  children 
training  in  doing  some  of  the  important  things  they  will  need  to 
do  in  daily  life  and  to  stimulate  them  to  observe  and  discrim- 
inate carefully  through  all  the  senses.  A  child  from  three  to 
six  years  of  age  who  is  allowed  considerable  freedom  in  the  use 
of  objects  in  the  home,  and  who  can  be  with  his  mother  in  the 
kitchen   and   elsewhere   and  participate  in   her   activities   will 


igo 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND    EDUCATION 


gain  the  sort  of  experience  that  he  is  expected  to  derive  from 
the  use  of  the  Montessori  apparatus.  Further,  if  he  has  a 
sandpile  and  a  collie  dog,  and  tools  such  as  a  hammer  and  saw 
and  the  like,  and  a  few  pieces  of  gymnastic  apparatus,  —  a  rope 
ladder,  and  a  swing  and  trapeze,  for  instance,  —  he  will  gain 
more  varied  experience  than  he  could  acquire  if  he  should  be 
confined  to  the  Montessori  apparatus  alone. 


Fig.  29.  —  Teachers  in  progressive  schools  frequently  take  their  pupils  to  see  objects 
and  industries  which  they  read  about  in  school.     (See  exercise  17,  page  362.) 


The  dynamic  principle  is  being  apphed  in  the  elementary, 
grammar  and  high  schools,  as  well  as  in  the  kindergarten 
and  the  Montessori  schools,  though,  as  we  shall  see 
later,  the  higher  the  pupil  ascends  in  school,  the  more 
his  work  must  consist  in  organizing  and  interpreting 
his  experiences.  But  the  fundamental  aim  of  pro- 
gressive schools  of  every  grade  to-day  is  to  have  pupils 
master  things  and  actions  as  well  as  words  and  rules.     We  are 


The 

dynamic 
principle 
applied  to 
all  school 
work 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       191 

hearing  much  about  the  Gary  schools,  the  Fairhope  school, 
and  others  of  similar  character ;  but  they  are  merely  conspicuous 
illustrations  of  tendencies  to  be  seen  everywhere  throughout 
the  country.  Most  of  the  developments  taking  place  in  the 
schools  concern  the  working  out  of  this  dynamic  aim.  Much 
of  the  discussion  at  educational  meetings  and  a  large  part  of  the 
articles  in  educational  magazines  deal  with  ways  and  means, 
first,  of  bringing  pupils  into  immediate  contact  with  the  ob- 
jects which  they  are  studying,  and  second,  of  learning  by  doing 
rather  than  by  reciting  alone.  He  is  regarded  as  the  most  skill- 
ful teacher  who  is  most  resourceful  in  leading  his  pupils  actually 
to  experiment  with  the  objects  or  to  perform  the  actions  which 
he  is  teaching  them.  On  the  other  hand,  he  who  is  regarded  as  the 
most  ineffective  teacher,  the  one  who  is  farthest  behind  the  times, 
is  he  who  simply  has  his  pupils  sit  in  their  seats  and  memorize 
rules  and  apply  them  to  imaginary  rather  than  real,  every-day 
problems.  There  are  certain  sections  of  the  country  in  which 
teaching  is  still  largely  of  the  latter  sort,  and  these  sections  are 
regarded  by  educational  people  everywhere  as  retarded  in  their 
educational  development. 

The  principles  mentioned   in   the   foregoing  paragraphs   re- 
specting the  role  of  dynamic  activity  in  learning  should  deter- 
mine  in   large   degree    the   teaching   of   all    studies,  ^j^^ 
particularly    in    elementary    education.     To     begin  dynamic 
with,  teachers  are  becoming  convinced  that  a  pupil  applied  in 
can  acquire  a  mastery  of  arithmetic  only  by  using  it  in  anthmetic 
a  concrete  manner  in  the  construction  of  his  playhouses  or  other 
objects,  in  actual  or  make-believe  buying  and  selling,  in  weigh- 
ing and  measuring  the  commodities  he  is  familiar  with,  and  in 
other  ways  necessitated  by  the  experiences  of  daily  life.     So 
many  of  the  child's  interests  require  the  ready  and  accurate  use 
of  arithmetic  that  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in  presenting 
it  to  him  in  a  dynamic  manner.     It  should  be  borne  in  mind 


IQJ 


.M1:MAL    DKXELOr.MEM'   AM)    EDUCA'lION 


that  what  a  pupil  is  unable  (o  usr  at  any  time  cannot  be  taught 
him  most  economically  and  efficiently  at  that  time. 

The  Committee  of  Ten,  the  first  of  the  long  list  of  committees 
which  have  during  the  past  two  decades  discussed  education  from 
the  standpoint  of  developing  efficiency  rather  than  disciplining 
the  mental  faculties,  has  protested  against  much  that  is  taught 
under    the    term    "commercial    arithmetic."     In    speaking    of 


Fig.  ,jo.  —  In  this  school  pupils  learn  tables  of  measurement  by  actually  using  the 
various  measures.     (See  exercise  39,  page  367.) 

such  subjects  as  banking,  insurance,  discount,  partial  pay- 
ments, equation  of  payments,  and  the  like,  the  Committee  says 
that  in  the  textbooks  "we  find  the  subjects  in  question  prefaced 
by  very  excellent  definitions.  The  pupil  who  masters  them 
will  be  able  to  state  on  examination  that  the  market  value  of 
stock  is  what  the  stock  brings  per  share  when  sold  for  cash ; 
that  stock  is  at  a  discount  when  its  market  value  is  less  than 
its  par  value ;    that  its  par  value  is  that  named  in  the  certifi- 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       193 

cate ;  that  the  payee  of  a  bill  of  exchange  is  the  person  to  whom 
the  money  is  ordered  to  be  paid ;  in  fine,  to  state  in  brief  sen- 
tences the  first  principles  of  commercial  law.  He  may  also, 
after  much  conjecturing,  be  able  to  solve  many  questions  in 
banking,  exchange,  insurance,  and  custom-house  business. 
But  until  he  is  brought  into  actual  contact  with  the  business 
itself,  he  can  form  no  clear  conception  of  what  it  all  means,  or 
what  are  the  uses  or  apphcations  of  the  problems  he  is  solving. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  he  is  once  brought  face  to  face  with 
business  as  an  actuaUty ;  when  for  the  first  time  he  becomes  a 
depositor  in  a  savings  bank,  or  a  purchaser  of  shares  in  a  cor- 
poration, he  will  find  all  the  arithmetic  necessary  for  his  pur- 
poses to  be  interest,  discount,  and  percentage.  The  concep- 
tions which  he  vainly  endeavored  to  master  by  recitations  from 
a  textbook  take  their  places  in  his  mind  with  hardly  the  neces- 
sity of  an  effort  on  his  part." 

It  is  encouraging  to  note  the  change  which  is  taking  place 
in  the  textbooks  in  arithmetic.  Those  now  coming  from  the 
press  are  requiring  the  pupil  to  react  upon  his  environment  in 
ways  which  will  require  him  to  use  the  arithmetic  he  is  trying  to 
learn.  The  mere  memorizing  of  definitions  or  fundamental 
operations  and  applying  them  in  the  solution  of  problems  en- 
tirely remote  from  the  pupil's  daily  life  is  passing,  though  it 
has  not  disappeared  altogether  by  any  means.  The  boys  who 
take  part  in  the  annual  corn-raising  contests  in  the  country 
schools  of  Winnebago  County,  Illinois,  for  instance,  thoroughly 
master  a  large  part  of  the  essentials  of  arithmetic,  for  they  must 
make  careful  measurements  of  the  land  on  which  the  corn  is 
raised,  careful  computation  of  the  amount  of  seed  needed,  of 
the  yield  from  each  hill,  of  the  value  of  the  crop,  and  the  per- 
centage of  profit. 

The  principle  in  question  is  universal  in  its  application  to 
the  work  of  the  schoolroom.     One  cannot  make  a  mistake  in 


194 


MKMAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATIOxN 


saying  that  a  pupil  will  gain  effective  command  of  reading  and 
spelling  only  by  using  these  arts  in  some  vital  way.  They  must 
Even  formal  ^^^  ^^  ^^^  apart  from  his  active  life,  but  must  be  made 
studies  the  means  of  acquiring  useful  knowledge,  recording  it, 

teught  and  communicating  with   his   friends.     As   early  as 

dynamicauy  ^j^^,  ^^^^^^  ^^^^  children  will  strive  with  all  their 
might  to  write  well  when  they  wish  to  send  a  letter  to  some 
friend.     Then    they    will    give    attention    to    chirography    and 


Fig.  31.  —  Farmer  boys  engc'ifrtd  in  judging  difTerent  varieties  of  corn.     (See  exercise  41, 

page  367.) 

spelling.  They  will  work  out  the  meaning  of  words,  securing 
help  from  every  available  source  when  they  wish  to  decipher 
the  story  in  some  interesting  book.  In  the  same  way  the  college 
student  will  attack  with  zest  and  enthusiasm  the  difficulties  of 
a  foreign  language  when  he  is  looking  forward  to  a  trip  abroad. 
The  chief  function  of  both  teacher  and  textbook  should  be  to 
create  situations  appealing  so  strongly  to  the  learner's  inter- 
ests and  impulses  that  he  will   largely  disregard  the  drudgery 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION:     GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       195 

of  mastering  the  technique  of  a  subject,  as  he  fixes  his  atten- 
tion upon  the  end  to  be  reached  and  eageriy  presses  toward  it. 

The  subject  which  has  offered  the  greatest  resistance  of  any 
in  the  elementary  school  curriculum  to  the  application  of  dy- 
namic methods  is  grammar.  It  has  been  more  than  any  other 
study  the  despair  of  teachers  and  the  bugbear  of  pupils.  Yet 
it  is  possible  to  combine  the  use  of  language  and  the  technique 
of  grammar  and  to  relate  both  to  the  pupil's  actual  experience 
in  such  a  way  that  he  will  come  to  appreciate  the  help  that  he 
will  receive  from  the  study  of  grammar.  The  sentence,  as  the 
pupil  himself  uses  it,  especially  in  written  expression,  should 
be  made  the  basis  of  grammatical  study.  His  own  composi- 
tions upon  subjects  in  which  he  is  vitally  interested  will  furnish 
all  the  materials  necessary  for  gaining  a  mastery  of  the  essentials 
of  grammar.  From  his  own  essays  he  may  be  led  to  see  what 
the  nature  of  a  sentence  is ;  what  various  functions  words 
perform ;  the  changes  that  occur  in  words  as  they  are  used  in 
varied  relations;  the  necessity  for  different  kinds  of  sentences, 
and  the  characteristics  of  each.  In  short,  he  may  be  so  taught 
that  he  will  come  to  regard  grammar  as  a  useful  tool,  which, 
like  the  ability  to  read  and  to  write,  he  sees  to  be  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  adequate  interchange  of  thought. 

It  is  not  only  in  the  elementary  and  grammar  school  that 
the  need  for  vital,   dynamic   teaching  exists.     It  is  generally 
agreed   that   formal,  verbal  methods   have   endured  Dynamic 
more  tenaciously  in  the  high  school  than  in  the  lower  methods 

,        ,  T     •  m  second- 

schools.     It  IS  not  uncommon  to  hear  the  statement  ary  educa- 

made  among  high-school  teachers  that  if  a  teacher  **°" 

knows  his  subject,  the  problem  of  presenting  it  to  pupils  will 

take  care  of  itself.     This  view  has  been  responsible  to  a  large 

extent  for  the  static  teaching  that  persists  in  high  schools  in 

communities  in  which  the  methods  in  the  elementary  school 

are  being  made  vital  and  dynamic.     The  Committee  of  Ten 


196  MENTA1>   DEVELOFMKNT  AND   EDUCATION 

already  referred  to  recognized  the  static,  formal  character  of 
high-school  teaching  throughout  the  country  when  the  Report 
was  written ;  and  while  the  situation  is  improving  slowly  there 
is  much,  very  much,  still  to  be  accomplished  before  high-school 
work  in  many  schools  will  be  effective. 

The  chief  emphasis  in  the  teaching  of  a  foreign  language,  for 
example,  has  been  put  upon  the  memorizing  of  rules  and  forms 
and  syntactical  constructions  as  ends  in  themselves  rather  than 
as  auxiliaries  to  the  "penetration  of  the  sense."  The  Com- 
mittee of  Ten  pointed  out  the  futihty  of  such  teaching,  saying 
that  "at  the  very  outset  the  student  should  be  made  to  under- 
stand that  these  things  are  not  ends  but  tools,  and  that  the 
end  is  to  gain,  through  the  reading  of  Latin,  an  insight  into  the 
thought  and  feeling  of  a  people  who  have  contributed  very 
largely  to  making  the  life  of  the  civilized  world  of  to-day  what  it 
is.  The  'Commentaries  of  Caesar,'  the  'Epics  of  Virgil,'  and 
the 'Orations  of  Cicero'  —  commonly  spoken  of  as  subjects  re- 
quired for  admission  to  college  —  are  in  reality  masterpieces 
of  literary  style  and  historical  documents  of  first-rate  impor- 
tance." 

The  Committee  of  Twelve,  as  well  as  the  Committee  of  Ten, 
has  emphasized  the  need  of  making  a  foreign  language  significant 
to  the  pupil ;  of  so  handling  it  that  he  will  feel  its  usefulness  in 
his  daily  life.  It  must  not  be  regarded  as  a  thing  apart  from  his 
vital  interests.  The  Committee  of  Twelve  says:  "The  study  of 
French  and  German  in  the  secondary  schools  is  profitable  in 
three  ways:  First,  as  an  introduction  to  the  life  and  literature 
of  France  and  Germany ;  secondly,  as  a  preparation  for  in- 
tellectual pursuits  that  require  the  ability  to  read  French  and 
German  for  information ;  thirdly,  as  the  foundation  of  an  accom- 
plishment that  may  become  useful  in  business  and  travel." 

The  dynamic  principle  applies  as  well  to  the  teaching  of  Eng- 
lish in  the  high  school  as  of  language  in  the  elementary  school. 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION:     GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       197 

But  rules  of  rhetoric  and  definitions  of  qualities  of  style  have 
been  laboriously  memorized  by  high-school  pupils,  though  it 
is  now  generally  acknowledged  that  this  static  knowl-  j^^^j^ 
edge  has  been  fruitless  in  developing  in  the  learner  rhetoric 
a  command  of  clear,  facile  and  effective  written  ^°*°"*^ 
or  oral  expression.  Instead  of  memorizing  set  rules  for  reci- 
tation and  then  applying  them  in  a  mechanical  way,  the  pupil 
must  be  placed  in  situations  which  will  awaken  the  desire  to 
express  himself  forcefully  and  pleasantly.  He  must  be  led  to 
see  the  error  or  inadequacy  or  inefficiency  of  his  expression, 
and  by  constant  scrutiny  and  revision  of  his  own  work  he  v/ill 
be  helped  to  acquire  the  art  of  clear  and  effective  expression. 
The  pupil  should  never  be  required  to  learn  rules  and  forms  as 
ends  in  themselves,  or  in  the  belief  that  at  some  distant  time 
he  may  chance  to  need  them.  He  must  gain  them  when  and  as 
he  needs  them  to  accomplish  real  tasks  which  have  meaning  and 
value  for  him. 

Turning  now  to  dynamic  teaching  of  science  studies,  some 
readers  can  doubtless  remember  when  physics,  chemistry,  bot- 
any,  zoology,   physiology,    geology,    and   astronomy 
were  taught  almost  wholly  from  a  textbook,  and  in  ing  of 
the  space  of  thirteen  weeks  each.     A  few  years  ago  the^high" 
it  was  deemed  a  waste  of  time  and  energy  for  a  pupil  school 
to  use  a  microscope  in  botanical  or  zoological  study,  or  physi- 
cal apparatus  in  the  study  of  physics.     Sometimes  the  instruc- 
tor would  illustrate  what  he  was  teaching  with  an  experiment 
or  a  specimen,  but  usually  he  had  neither  the  skill  nor  the  equip- 
ment to  perform  experiments  successfully  or  to  secure  speci- 
mens in  botany  or  zoology  or  geology  which  would  be  inter- 
esting or  instructive  to  pupils. 

It  is  now  generally  admitted  that  there  is  no  group  of  sub- 
jects which  contribute  more  to  the  pupil's  understanding  of 
and  adjustment  to  the  world  in  which  he  lives  than  the  sciences, 


igS  MENTAL   DEVELOPxMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

provided  they  are  taught  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pupil's 
interests  and  needs  rather  than  from  the  point  of  view  of  formal 
definition  and  classification.  In  progressive  high  schools  to- 
day, laboratories  arc  provided  for  the  study  of  all  the  sciences ; 
and  pupils  are  given  opportunity  and  are  required  to  test, 
weigh,  measure,  collect  and  represent,  —  in  short,  to  come 
into  vital,  dynamic  relations  with  the  objects  and  phe- 
nomena which  the  sciences  describe.  The  past  ten  years  have 
witnessed  great  improvements  in  science  textbooks,  and  many 
voices  arc  now  raised  against  confining  the  study  of  nature 
to  the  printed  page.  Instead  it  is  being  urged  that  the  pupil 
should  go  where  nature  is  manifested  and  learn  what  she  is  in 
her  varied  forms  by  direct  observation  and  by  trying  what  he 
can  do  with  her.  It  is  this  experience  and  this  only  that  will 
yield  vital  knowledge  and  that  will  enlist  genuine  interest. 

There  is  one  subject  which  is  destined  to  occupy  a  very  promi- 
nent place  in  the  high-school  curriculum,  —  the  study  of  citi- 
zenship with  a  view  to  making  pupils  intelligent  re- 
teaching^        garding  the  genius  of  our  government  and  patriotic 
of  citizen-      [^  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  its  institutions ;    and  it 

ship  .  .  .    ,  .         , 

may  be  appropriate  to  give  special  attention  here  to 
this  subject.  Frequently  a  pupil  memorizes  definitions  relat- 
ing to  what  might  be  called  the  anatomy  or  structure  of  gov-^ 
ernment,  and  he  becomes  submerged  in  technical  matters  which 
he  cannot  understand  because  he  has  had  no  concrete  contact 
with  them,  and  so  of  course  he  can  take  no  interest  in  the  func- 
tions of  our  government  or  the  ideals  underlying  our  institu- 
tions. 

The  proper  time  to  instruct  a  pupil  regarding  citizenship  and 
patriotism  is  when  he  begins  to  assume  the  duties  of  a  citizen  in 
some  simple  way,  as  in  observing  and  helping  to  endorse  regu- 
lations pertaining  to  clean  roads  or  streets  and  all  like  matters 
in  his  community.     Comprehension  of  the  government  of  our 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    GENERAL   PRINCIPLES       199 

country  and  respect  and  love  for  its  institutions  can  never  be 
developed  in  the  young  in  an  effective  way  by  a  mere  technical 
study  of  the  machinery  of  government.  Mechanical  conning 
of  definitions  in  civics  and  poHtical  economy  will  never  fill  the 
minds  of  youth  with  understanding  and  their  hearts  with  genu- 
ine enthusiasm  for  their  native  land.     Nor  will  a  formal  salute 


Fig.  32.  — Fourteen  children  from  fourteen  different  countries  all  in  one  and  the  same 
public  school.     (See  e.xercise  42,  page  367.) 

to  the  flag,  daily  repeated  in  terms  largely  meaningless  to  chil- 
dren, be  effective  in  developing  real  patriotic  feeling. 

The  principle  is  that  education  for  citizenship  and  the  develop- 
ment of  patriotism  must  be  at  every  point  dynamic.  The 
child  must  at  the  appropriate  time  be  made  to  participate  in  a 
concrete,  vital  manner  in  the  functions  of  government  in  his 
every-day  life;    he  must  be  led  to  see  how  pervasive  is  the  in- 


200  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

tangible  thing  we  call  government,  which  hedges  and  guards 
him  at  every  turn.  In  this  way  he  should  be  led  to  appreciate 
the  reasons  why  he  must  do  the  things  which  the  regulations 
of  his  community  constantly  enforce  upon  him  and  his  fellows. 
He  must  be  made  to  appreciate,  not  in  definitions  and  verbal 
statements  but  in  persons  and  actions,  the  source  of  authority 
for  these  regulations,  and  by  what  right  certain  individuals  are 
clothed  with  power  to  compel  their  observance.  This  direct 
face-to-face  and  hand-to-hand  contact  with  law,  both  in  its 
making  and  in  its  operation,  is  the  only  means  by  which  our 
youth  are  likely  to  gain  a  genuine  comprehension  of  and  re- 
spect and  love  for  our  institutions,  and  a  desire  to  make  them 
stable  and  permanent  by  patriotic  and  law-abiding  conduct. 

As  a  test  of  the  principles  involved  in  our  discussion,  will  you 
who  are  reading  these  lines  ask  yourself  the  question,  —  Do  I 
Developing  really  love  my  country,  or  am  I  merely  able  to  recite 
patriotism  ^^  fg^  patriotic  verses  concerning  it?  If  you  think 
you  have  genuine  feeling  for  your  country,  see  if  you  can  discover 
if  you  have  ever  given  any  concrete  evidence  of  your  regard  for 
your  country.  Have  you  sacrificed  any  pleasure  or  profit  for 
it?  Have  you  defended  it  against  real  or  imaginary  danger? 
Have  you  ever  stood  up  for  it  when  it  was  threatened  by  its 
enemies,  without  or  within?  What  deeds  have  you  performed 
which  have  shown  that  you  have  true  affection  for  your  native 
land? 

Next,  study  the  boys  and  girls  you  know  from  the  age  of 
eight  or  nine  to  twenty,  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  whether  they 
are  aware  that  they  have  a  country  to  which  they  should  be 
loyal,  and  for  which  they  should  have  warm,  generous  feelings. 
Take  a  typical  boy  of  any  age,  and  note  what  he  says  or  does 
which  will  give  a  clew  to  his  attitude  toward  his  country.  Does 
he  defend  it  when  his  companions  say  harsh  things  about  it? 
Does  he  indicate  by  word  or  by  deed  that  he  would  forfeit  any 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    GENERAL  PRINCIPLES       201 

goods  or  pleasures  in  order  that  his  country  might  be  the 
stronger  or  safer  or  more  prosperous  thereby  ? 

If  you  will  in  this  way  make  a  critical,  unprejudiced  diagnosis 
of  your  own  attitude  toward  your  country  and  also  the  attitude 
of  the  young  people  with  whom  you  come  in  contact,  you  will 
probably  be  surprised  at  the  small  degree  of  awareness  of  native 
land  which  you  can  discover.  Many  American  youths  do  not 
feel  generous  affection  for  their  country.  They  are  not  con- 
vinced that  it  has  real  existence  and  needs  to  be  served.  Most 
persons,  young  and  old,  go  about  their  daily  work  and  play 
and  do  not  think  of  their  country  once  a  month.  They  partici- 
pate in  the  election  of  a  president  and  congressman  and  other 
officers,  but  they  regard  them  as  individuals  who  are  paid  for 
performing  their  tasks  just  as  we  are  all  paid  for  the  work  we  do, 
and  they  praise  or  criticize  their  actions  just  as  they  do  in  the 
case  of  other  men. 

We  have  all  studied  civics.  We  have  learned  what  the  differ- 
ent governmental  units  and  the  offices  are,  and  perhaps  the 
names  of  the  office-holders.  But  most  of  us  have  not  gone 
further  than  this.  We  do  not  realize  that  there  is  a  vital,  re- 
ciprocal, dependable  relationship  between  ourselves  and  our 
country.  "Our  country"  is  merely  a  phrase,  not  a  reality,  to 
many  of  us. 

In  the  schools  pupils  say  that  they  live  in  a  "land  of  liberty"  ; 
but  how  many  of  them  appreciate  what  this  means?  What 
proportion  of  them  realize  the  advantages  of  living  in  a  land 
of  freedom,  as  contrasted  with  a  land  of  bondage?  If  there 
be  any  reader  who  has  not  reflected  on  this  matter,  let  him  ask 
an  eighth-grade  or  even  a  high-school  pupil  what  privileges  he 
has  in  America  which  he  could  not  have  in  Germany  or  Russia 
or  Japan  or  Sweden  or  Spain.  Ask  a  graduate  of  a  high  school 
whether  he  has  educational  advantages  here  which  he  could 
not  have  in  other  countries,  and  see  how  much  he  knows  about 


202  M i:\TAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

the  matter.  The  writer  has  tried  this  time  and  again,  and  the 
majority  of  high-school  graduates  can  make  no  intelligent  re- 
sponse to  any  questions  of  this  kind.  Even  the  majority  of 
college  graduates  have  but  slight  appreciation  of  the  advantages 
which  they  enjoy  in  this  country  but  which  most  of  the  people 
in  other  countries  do  not  enjoy. 

The  first  thing  to  do  in  teaching  love  of  country  is  to  make 
our  young  people  vividly  conscious  of  the  fact  that  in  America 
The  first  ^'^  ^^^  people  are  guaranteed  the  right  to  try  to  ac- 
step  in  complish  the  aims  toward  which  they  are  striving. 

lovVoT'"^  Let  anyone  go  to  any  part  of  our  country  and  he  can 
country  }jyg  j^jg  ]jf(,  ,^g  Y\e  chooses,  so  long  as  he  does  not  tres- 
pass upon  the  freedom  and  rights  of  his  fellows.  Let  him  go 
to  the  farthermost  ends  of  the  earth  and  his  country  will  pro- 
tect him  and  safeguard  him.  His  country  guarantees  him 
manifold  benefits,  —  spiritual,  intellectual,  physical.  Let  these 
benefits  be  mentioned  concretely  in  every  schoolroom  so  that 
pupils  will  gain  a  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  existence 
and  thoughtfulness  of  their  country. 

When  one  is  vividly  conscious  of  the  devotion  and  helpful- 
ness of  his  country,  then  there  will  be  a  chance  of  awakening 
his  love  for  it.  But  we  cannot  have  warm  feeling  for  a  mere 
abstraction.  We  cannot  love  an  impersonal,  verbal  thing.  Our 
affections  go  out  only  to  objects  that  have  life  and  feeling  like 
ourselves,  and  that  also  have  needs  like  our  own,  and  that  in 
times  of  stress  and  strain  require  our  service. 

Happily  we  are  attaining  greater  success  now  than  formerly 
in  making  children  aware  of  the  debt  they  owe  their  country. 
We  are  aU  ^^  some  schools  teachers  are  leading  pupils  to  see 
members  of  how  one  person  is  dependent  upon  others ;  how  we 
are  all  members  of  one  body,  and  how  wretched  we 
would  be  if  we  were  not  helped  by  our  fellows.  This  idea  of 
dependence   and   cooperation   is   kept   uppermost   now   in    the 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:     GENERAL  PRINCIPLES       203 

study  of  citizenship  in  all  progressive  schools.  The  idea  is  de- 
veloped first  in  the  home.  The  young  pupil  is  led  to  see  how  his 
welfare  depends  upon  the  service  rendered  by  father,  mother, 
brothers,  and  sisters.  Then  the  question  is  put  to  him,  "What 
ought  you  to  do  for  them  ?  "  These  ideas  are  worked  out  through 
many  concrete  instances,  and  in  the  end  the  child  is  led  to  realize 
that  there  is  mutual  dependence,  and  that  every  member  is  in- 
debted to  every  other  one.  Thus  he  acquires  a  loyalty  to  the 
family  and  becomes  patriotic  with  respect  to  it. 

Then  his  inquiry  extends  to  the  school.  He  is  guided  to 
see  how  in  a  school,  too,  all  are  members  of  one  body.  If  any 
member  is  not  loyal,  if  he  will  not  serve  the  school,  if  he  will 
not  play  fair,  then  he  ought  not  to  be  in  the  school  at  all.  When 
this  idea  is  presented  very  concretely,  every  pupil  can  be  made 
to  feel  that  the  school  serves  him  and  he  in  turn  should  serve 
it.  The  writer  has  observed  pupils  who  were  more  or  less  in- 
different about  the  school  as  such,  who  did  not  feel  any  respon- 
sibility toward  it,  but  who  developed  a  loyalty  to  it  when  they 
had  been  led  to  see  how  the  school  helps  them,  and  how  it  would 
be  impossible  to  have  a  school  if  each  member  did  not  cooperate 
and  was  not  faithful,  loyal,  and  patriotic. 

Then  the  pupil  is  led  to  study  community  life,  with  the  em- 
phasis upon  life.  He  is  made  to  see  that  the  community  is  a 
great  living  organism,   and  there  is  government  in  . 

order  that  people  may  get  the  most  out  of  life.  And  of  com- 
just  as  in  the  home  and  in  the  school  all  are  members  """^ 
of  one  body,  so  it  is  in  the  community.  And  further,  as  the 
community  protects  and  helps  the  individual,  as  it  wards  off 
disaster,  secures  pure  milk  and  pure  water,  guards  against  con- 
tagious disease,  gets  people  out  of  burning  buildings,  and  so  on, 
so  each  individual  must  play  fair  with  the  community.  He 
must  do  nothing  which  will  disrupt  the  community  or  prevent 
it  from  serving  all  the  people  in  the  best  way.     Not  only  this, 


204  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

but  he  must  give  his  services  when  needed  to  advance  the  inter- 
ests of  the  community.  It  helps  him  and  he  must  help  it.  If 
it  is  threatened  in  any  way  he  must  go  to  the  rescue,  and  do  what 
he  can  to  save  it. 

And  then  his  inquiry  widens  out,  and  he  sees  what  the  state 
means,  and  how  he  could  not  have  the  advantages  he  enjoys 
if  there  were  no  state ;  and  in  many  concrete  ways  he  comes 
to  see  that  the  sole  purpose  of  the  state  is  to  help  the  people  to 
cooperate  so  that  they  can  make  the  most  of  life. 

And  finally  the  inquiry  extends  to  the  nation.  And  in  the 
same  concrete  way  as  the  pupil  learns  that  the  home,  the  school, 
the  community,  and  the  state  help  him,  and  that  he  must  be 
loyal  and  in  times  of  need  he  must  sacrifice  for  them,  so  with 
the  nation.     "  My  country  "  then  becomes  a  living  reality  to  him. 

Saluting  the  flag,  paying  tribute  to  it,  singing  songs  in  its 
honor  will  help  the  child  to  think  and  feel  about  his  country  in  a 
concrete  way.  It  will  not  accomplish  much,  however,  unless 
the  flag  is  made  to  stand  for  service.  A  teacher  might  very 
well  every  day  in  her  school  refer  to  the  flag  simply  as  a  symbol 
of  some  concrete  act  which  the  country  performs  for  the  pupils 
of  the  school.  When  she  shows  how  the  country  aids  people 
to  achieve  what  they  wish  and  protects  them  from  disease  and 
harm  of  all  sorts,  she  can  point  to  the  flag  and  say:  "This 
flag  is  the  sign  that  our  country  is  thinking  of  us  and  working 
for  us.  It  is  a  sign  that  we  should  be  devoted  to  our  country, 
or  it  cannot  continue  to  do  for  us  what  it  wishes  to  do  or  what 
it  has  done.  Let  us  salute  the  flag  to  show  that  we  understand 
what  our  country  is  trying  to  do  for  us  all  and  that  we  will  be 
loyal  to  it.  We  will  do  nothing  to  interfere  with  our  country's 
welfare,  and  when  it  needs  our  service  we  will  respond.  We 
will  give  our  hands,  our  heads,  and  our  hearts  to  our  country 
when  it  is  in  need." 


CHAPTER   XII 
DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:  THE   ROLE   OF  SUGGESTION 

Observe  a  person  learning  to  ride  a  bicycle  in  a  riding  gallery. 
The  novice  will  usually  keep  his  eye  on  the  posts  which  he  should 
avoid  and  he  will  say,  —  *'I  must  not  run  into  them," 

•  Actioii 

with  the  result  that  he  will  ordinarily  go  straight  for  foUows  the 
them.     An  experienced  bicycHst  riding  in  a  crowded  ^^ection  of 
street  does  not  keep  his  eye  on  the  street  car  or  the 
truck  to  be  avoided,  so  much  as  he  keeps  it  on  the  point  he  must 
reach  in  order  to  escape  harm.     The  point  is  that  one  will  usu- 
ally go  where  his  attention  goes. 

By  way  of  illustrating  a  special  phase  of  the  matter,  a  teacher 
said  to  a  class  of  pupils,  —  "Don't  look  at  what  some  busybody 
has  written  on  the  blackboard  here  at  the  right."  Instantly 
most  of  the  eyes  in  the  class  were  turned  toward  the  board. 
Many  of  the  pupils  felt  humihated  when  they  reaHzed  that  they 
had  disobeyed  the  command  given ;  but  viewed  from  a  psycho- 
logical standpoint  the  command  was:  "Look  at  the  board." 
It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  in  any  group  of  children  or  adults 
three  fourths  of  them  would  do  a  thing  like  this  which  they 
were  commanded  not  to  do.  They  might  regret  it  afterward, 
but  they  would  respond  positively  to  the  negative  suggestion. 

Many  tragedies  occur  every  day  in  the  schoolrooms  of  the 
country  through  purely  negative  commands.  A  teacher  says 
to  a  pupil  who  is  inclined  to  communicate  :  "You  must  not  turn 
around  and  whisper  to  the  one  behind  you,  or  I  will  punish  you." 
She  gives  him  nothing  absorbing  to  do  which  will  divert  his  at- 
tention from  the  temptation  to  whisper.     He  is  simply  left  in  a 

205 


2o6  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

vacant  state  of  mind,  the  teacher  believing  that  the  command 
she  has  given  him  will  hold  him  in  check. 

It  is  especially  important  that  we  should  adopt  a  constructive 
method  of  dealing  with  children's  aches,  ills  and  defects  of  every 
The  con  ^OTt.  One  way  to  fix  the  habit  of  stuttering,  for  in- 
structive stance,  is  to  talk  to  the  victim  about  it,  and  say  to 
of  aches  him:  "You  must  not  do  that.  You  ought  to  be 
and  ills  ashamed  of  yourself,"  and  so  on.  If  one  cannot  give 
the  sufferer  confidence  in  his  ability  to  speak  without  hesitation ; 
if  one  cannot  interest  him  in  something  which  will  lead  his 
thought  away  from  himself ;  if  one  cannot  put  courage  in  the 
place  of  fear,  one  can  never  cure  his  stuttering. 

A  competent  physician  will  not  allow  gloomy  persons  to  talk 
to  his  patients.  He  will  particularly  forbid  anyone  to  say  to 
a  sick  person :  "Your  case  is  a  desperate  one.  You  will  have  a 
hard  fight.  You  may  get  through,  but  I  have  known  many 
people  with  your  trouble  who  went  under.  I  hope  you  will  pull 
out  of  it,  but  I  wish  you  were  looking  better." 

Students  of  psychology  sometimes  try  the  experiment  of  sug- 
gesting to  a  fellow  student  that  he  is  coming  down  with  a  disease 
which  is  epidemic  in  the  vicinity.  One  student  will  meet  the 
victim  and  say  to  him:  "What's  the  matter  with  you?  You 
look  as  though  you  had  that  disease  that  is  going  around  the 
neighborhood.  You  ought  to  watch  out.  People  are  coming 
down  with  it  every  day.  If  I  were  in  your  place,  I  would  get 
home  without  delay."  In  a  few  minutes  another  student  will 
meet  him  and  make  about  the  same  comment  as  the  first  one  did. 
So  a  third,  a  fourth,  and  a  fifth  experimenter  will  impress  upon 
him  that  he  has  all  the  signs  of  the  prevailing  disease.  If  the 
victim  is  not  aware  of  the  hoax,  he  will  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten 
be  in  a  disturbed  condition,  physically  and  mentally,  by  the 
time  the  fifth  conspirator  reaches  him.  This  is  not  a  trick  which 
should  be  generally  played  on  one's  friends.     Some  persons  are 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION  207 

more  suggestible  than  others,  and  they  would  be  seriously 
affected  if  several  persons  should  give  them  a  terrifying  account 
of  the  condition  of  their  health. 

Children  are  especially  suggestible  in  respect  to  pains  and 
fears.  One  can  lead  a  young  child  to  see  any  fearsome  object 
that  is  suggested  in  the  dark.  Try  this  experiment  if  you  think 
it  is  safe :  Blindfold  a  child.  Tell  him  you  will  let  some  water 
drop  on  his  hands  to  see  how  hot  he  can  endure  it.  Have  some 
hot  water  near  by.  Also  have  some  cold  water  concealed.  Let 
a  drop  of  the  cold  water  fall  on  his  hand  and  the  chances  are  he 
will  declare  that  the  water  is  hot.  Many  adults  even  would 
be  unable  to  resist  the  suggestion.  There  are  cases  on  record 
of  serious  results  of  initiations  in  college  and  secret  societies  in 
which  it  was  suggested  to  the  initiate  that  some  ordeal  would  be 
inflicted  upon  him,  whereas  the  thing  was  not  done  at  all. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  childhood  is  the  time  of  fancy. 
We  mean  by  this  that  the  child's  images  are  often  more  vivid 
than  his  perceptions.  He  sees  and  hears  what  is  aroused  within 
rather  than  what  is  presented  from  without.  This  will  explain 
why  children  so  often  misrepresent  objects  and  events.  The 
adult  can  appreciate  the  principle  involved  if  he  will  consider 
his  own  case  when  he  has  a  bad  dream  and  awakens  beUeving 
that  the  things  of  his  fancy  are  real.  It  may  take  him  some 
time  to  discover  that  what  he  thought  he  saw  and  heard  was 
imaginary. 

So  we  may  count  upon  it  that  most  persons  —  and  practically  all 
children  —  will  be  much  influenced  by  what  is  suggested  to  them. 
If  a  child  has  cut  himself,  for  instance,  so  that  the   ^ 
blood  flows,  and  if  adults  in  their  expressions  seem  intensify 
to  indicate  that  the  thing  is  very  serious,  and  they  misfortunes 
lament  over  him,  they  will  intensify  his  suffering.     On  by  sugges- 

tion 

the  other  hand,  it  will  seem  much  less  serious  to  the 

child  if  the  adults  say:    ''Oh,  that  is  nothing;    I   will    help 


2o8  MENTAT.   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

you  lie  it  up,  iuul  it  will  be  all  right  in  a  jilTy."  It  is  rare  that 
an  individual,  old  or  young,  can  resist  the  suggestion  of  pain. 
On  the  other  hand,  most  persons  will  respond  to  the  suggestion 
that  a  pain  or  any  bodily  ill  is  slight  or  at  least  temporary,  and 
that  if  they  \vi\\  try  to  forget  about  it,  it  will  soon  pass  off. 

When  the  world  was  young,  and  children  were  exposed  to 
danger,  much  more  than  they  are  now,  they  were  more  likely 
to  be  hurt  seriously,  and  so  nature  equipped  them  with  an  in- 
stinct to  seek  help  whenever  anything  amiss  happened  to  them. 
This  instinct  is  still  very  active,  though  the  conditions  have 
changed  and  it  is  not  often  now  that  a  child  is  injured  seriously 
enough  to  have  much  attention  given  to  the  matter.  Adults 
should  be  governed  by  this  fact  in  their  treatment  of  the  child's 
complaints  about  his  painful  experiences.  He  should  be  taught 
as  early  as  possible  to  bear  his  little  mishaps  without  whimpering. 
Not  once  in  ten  cases  probably  will  they  be  of  sufl&cient  moment 
to  warrant  his  making  complaint  about  them ;  he  will  get  over 
them  sooner  if  he  does  not  do  so.  Adults  cannot  do  anything 
for  nine  tenths  of  the  minor  disturbances  of  childhood  and 
youth.  They  come  and  go,  and  there  is  no  benefit  to  be  gained 
from  talking  about  them. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  a  parent  or  teacher  should  be  callous 
to  the  child's  petitions  for  sympathy  and  help.  True  sympathy, 
however,  is  not  sentimental,  and  more  especially  it  is  seldom 
foolish  in  making  an  excessive  display  over  the  trifling  hurts  which 
children  receive.  True  sympathy  will  lead  a  parent  to  assist  a 
child  to  forget  his  minor  ills  and  to  acquire  the  habit  of  passing 
them  by  without  noticing  them.  It  is  particularly  important 
that  adults  should  not  constantly  ask  children  whether  they  have 
aches  in  their  stomach  or  back  or  head,  whether  they  "feel  well," 
and  so  on.  One  way  to  develop  an  ache  is  to  ask  a  person 
whether  he  feels  it,  and  particularly  to  tell  him  that  he  looks  as 
though  he  had  it. 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION  209 

It  would  be  well  for  all  concerned  if  people,  young  and  old, 
did  not  give  publicity  to  most  of  their  physical  ills.  One  some- 
times is  thrown  in  with  an  adult  who  will  recite  long  tales  about 
the  misbehavior  of  his  internal  organs.  He  will  tell  what  a 
hard  time  he  had  disposing  of  the  cucumber  he  ate  last  night, 
and  of  the  ''stitch  in  his  side,"  and  the  "lumbago  in  his  back," 
and  so  on  ad  nauseam.  It  is  possible  to  develop  this  type  of 
adult  by  encouraging  him  when  he  is  a  child  to  tell  everyone 
about  his  ills. 

It  will  be  granted  that  when  a  child  is  suffering  serious  dis- 
turbance it  should  be  discovered  early.  But  the  best  way  to 
detect  this  is  for  the  parent  and  teacher  to  learn  the  signs  of  it 
so  that  they  can  read  them  without  asking  the  child  whether 
he  feels  ill.  A  parent  or  teacher  should  be  able  to  tell  when 
a  child  has  a  fever,  or  when  he  is  not  being  properly  nour- 
ished, or  when  he  has  a  long-continued  pain  due  to  malfunction 
of  any  kind.  The  less  said  to  the  child  about  these  matters  the 
better,  unless  his  case  is  unusual.  The  child's  health  should 
be  in  the  keeping  of  parent,  teacher  and  medical  inspector.  He 
should  follow,  as  a  matter  of  habit,  a  healthful  regime  in  respect 
to  food,  exercise,  cleanliness,  etc.,  and  then  his  thoughts  should 
be  kept  on  optimistic  and  constructive  instead  of  gloomy  and 
introspective  matters. 

Physicians  and   nurses   are   often    inclined   to    augment   the 
troubles   of  their   patients   by  carelessness  in  suggesting   pain 
and  disaster.     The  following  illustrations  are  typical :  A  young 
woman  was  recently  sent  alone  to  a  distant  city  for  an 
operation  on  the  throat.     When  she  entered  the  hos-  sug^gestion 
pital  the  superintendent  asked  her  a  number  of  ques-  "^  *®  ^^^^' 
tions,  —  among  others  this  one :  "To  what  address 
should    information   be  sent  in   case  of   your  death?"     A  by- 
stander, observing  the  girl  when  this  question  was  asked,  would 
have  noticed  that  the  blood  left  her  cheeks  and  her  voice  trem- 


2IO  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

bled.  When  she  was  shown  to  her  room,  she  was  taken  down  a 
long  hall,  on  either  side  of  which  were  rooms  occupied  by  per- 
sons who  had  been  operated  upon,  some  of  whom  presented  a 
gruesome  appearance.  Shortly  after  the  girl  reached  her  room 
she  was  waited  upon  by  a  nurse  who  ascertained  her  tempera- 
ture and  her  pulse,  and  who  left  without  communicating  any  of 
the  results  to  the  victim.  Then  there  came  another  nurse  who 
gave  the  girl  medicine  which  she  said  a  physician  had  ordered 
her  to  take.  She  was  told  that  she  could  not  partake  of  any 
food  before  the  operation.  When  she  retired  she  was  apprehen- 
sive of  approaching  doom.  As  might  be  anticipated,  she  spent 
a  wakeful  night. 

Early  the  next  morning  nurses  appeared  to  give  medicines, 
to  read  her  temperature  and  pulse,  and  finally  to  robe  her  in  an 
operating-room  garment.  She  was  then  wheeled  through  the 
halls  to  the  operating  room.  She  was  not  given  a  general  anaes- 
thetic, so  that  she  was  able  to  observe  what  was  going  on  around 
her.  In  addition  to  the  surgeon  there  were  several  under- 
studies and  two  or  three  nurses,  who  were  making  bandages 
and  boiling  all  sorts  of  instruments.  When  the  girl  was  placed 
on  the  operating  table  she  was  overcome  with  terror  and  fainted, 
so  that  it  was  impossible  to  perform  the  operation  that  day. 
She  was  taken  to  her  room  and  told  to  be  quiet ;  but  every  little 
while  during  the  day  a  nurse  would  appear  to  read  her  tempera- 
ture and  pulse,  or  give  her  medicine ;  and,  to  make  a  long  story 
short,  the  girl  was  kept  in  such  a  state  of  fear  and  tension  that 
she  had  to  leave  the  hospital  without  the  operation,  —  the 
surgeon  refusing  to  operate  until  her  nervous  system  became 
steadier. 

From  the  moment  the  girl  entered  the  hospital  until  she  left 
it  she  was  subjected  to  suggestion  of  pain  and  disaster.  Any 
suggestible  person  treated  in  a  similar  way  would  be  alarmed. 
If  the  officials  and  nurses  had  been  observers  of  human  nature 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION  2ii 

they  would  not  have  suggested  in  any  way  that  the  girl  was 
facing  a  terrific  ordeal,  that  she  might  not  survive  it,  and  that 
her  operation  would  require  the  attendance  of  six  or  eight  per- 
sons. Hardly  anyone  could  resist  the  disastrous  effect  of  sug- 
gestion of  this  kind. 

The  principle  applies  to  every  sickroom,  no  matter  where  it 
may  be.  The  first  requirement  is  an  expression  of  good  cheer 
and  hopefulness  in  the  presence  of  an  afflicted  person.  There 
should  be  no  suggestion  of  danger  or  painfulness,  even  if  there 
is  serious  trouble  ahead.  It  is  shown  alike  by  experience  and 
by  experiment,  as  indicated  heretofore,  that  suggestion  of  pain 
is  likely  to  depress  vital  processes  and  so  to  weaken  one's  resist- 
ance to  pain  when  it  comes.  Preparations  for  operations  that 
suggest  cutting  or  bleeding  should  not  be  made  in  the  presence 
of  the  patient.  This  is  especially  important  when  the  patient 
is  a  child.  Frequently  the  anticipation  of  pain  is  more  serious 
than  the  pain  itself,  and  for  this  reason  the  mother  or  the  den- 
tist or  the  surgeon  should  make  use  of  every  device  to  lead  the 
patient  to  think  that  his  trouble  will  soon  be  over  and  there  is 
nothing  to  be  frightened  about. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  this  matter  which  is  of  great 
importance.     A  concrete  instance  will  serve  as  an  illustration : 

Mr.  M.  recently  suffered  a  sUght  nervous  shock 
which    interfered  with  his    memory,   and    especially  defects 
with  his  speech.     It  caused  him  much  distress.     Since  ™*y  ^® 

increased 

then  he  has  been  anxious  about  his  health,  and  he  is  by  sugges- 
afraid  of  a  recurrence  of  his  difficulty.     His  wife  is  ^°^ 
worried  about  him  and  is  constantly  with  him  in  the  hope  that 
she  may  protect  him  from  experiences  which  might  overtax  him. 
She  is,  in  fact,  devoting  her  life  to  him  now,  and  she  thinks  she 
may  be  able  to  bring  him  back  to  vigorous  health. 

Friends  of  the  family  call  frequently  to  pay  their  respects. 
Mrs.  M.  always  describes  Mr.  M's.  unhappy  experience  in  his 


212  MENTAL   DFAKLOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

presence.  She  goes  into  detail  about  his  loss  of  nicm<jry  and  his 
wandering  about,  not  knowing  where  he  was  going.  She  dwells 
particularly  upon  his  inability  to  recall  words  to  express  his  ideas. 
She  tells  how  he  could  not  frame  a  sentence  and  how  all  his  mental 
processes  seemed  to  go  awry.  Mr.  M.  sits  through  the  oft-told 
story.  His  wife  is  such  an  expert  in  the  use  of  language  that  he 
remains  silent  while  she  is  speaking.  Occasionally  he  may  ven- 
ture to  make  a  slight  correction  in  her  lurid  description  of  his 
performances  while  suffering  from  his  affliction,  but  she  insists 
she  is  right  because  she  observed  him,  and  he  did  not  know  what 
he  was  doing. 

Mrs.  M.  has  the  best  of  intentions  in  telling  her  neighbors  about 
her  husband's  misfortune.  She  knows  people  are  curious  about 
his  collapse,  and  she  wants  to  gratify  their  curiosity.  At  the 
same  time  she  wishes  people  to  understand  that  her  husband  had 
a  hard  time,  and  she  expects  that  her  recital  of  liis  troubles  will 
win  him  the  sympathy  of  his  friends. 

Unfortunately  the  more  she  talks  about  him  the  worse  it  is 
for  him.  No  one  could  sit  by  and  listen  to  the  story  of  his 
own  nervous  and  mental  disturbances  without  being  injured ; 
these  irregularities  are  always  intensified  by  dwelling  upon  them. 
One  who  had  temporarily  lost  the  power  of  constructing  a  sen- 
tence, but  who  had  regained  the  ability,  might  lose  it  again 
if  he  should  be  kept  thinking  about  his  trouble.  .  Even  one  who 
had  never  been  afflicted  in  this  way  might  be  overtaken  with 
the  tragedy  if  he  feared  it  and  thought  much  about  it. 

So  Mrs.  M.  is  unwittingly  interfering  with  her  husband's 
recovery  by  talking  about  his  difficulty  in  his  presence.  She 
also  injures  the  people  who  listen  to  her.  Take  a  hundred  per- 
sons chosen  at  random  and  describe  vividly  the  mental  and  nerv- 
ous disturbance  of  an  individual,  and  some  of  them  will  become 
morbidly  introspective  about  their  own  condition.  They  will 
imagine  they  have  symptoms  somewhat   like  those  described. 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION  213 

And  once  they  begin  to  be  apprehensive  about  their  nervous 
stability  they  will  probably  produce  at  least  minor  irregularities 
even  if  none  existed  at  the  outset.  This  is  likely  to  be  true  not 
only  of  mental  but  of  all  vital  processes.  Take  the  first  hundred 
persons  one  meets  and  describe  to  them  vividly  cases  of  heart 
disease,  and  the  chances  are  that  some  of  them  will  begin 
to  observe  malfunctioning  of  their  own  heart,  and  they  will 
imagine  they  have  the  beginning,  at  least,  of  the  diseases  de- 
scribed to  them.  Quacks  and  venders  of  patent  medicine  under- 
stand this  principle,  and  they  ask  their  victims  to  study  a  long 
list  of  terrifying  symptoms  which  are  set  forth  in  an  impressive 
way.  Patent  medicine  is  sold  very  largely  by  portraying  diseases 
so  concretely  that  morbidly-inclined  people  of  sound  health  will 
think  they  have  the  diseases. 

Not  infrequently  contagious  diseases  are  made  more  serious 
by  talking  about  them  before  patients.  By  way  of  illustration : 
A  twelve-year-old  child  contracted  scarlet  fever  in  school.  She 
was  isolated  in  the  home,  and  the  mother  served  as  her  nurse. 
There  was  a  telephone  adjoining  the  sickroom,  and  the  mother 
telephoned  her  friends  frequently.  In  describing  the  child's 
illness  she  would  tell  what  a  high  fever  she  had,  how  she  was 
agitated  in  her  sleep,  and  how  she  "  went  out  of  her  head."  Nine 
out  of  ten  children  Hstening  to  such  talk  would  be  depressed  by 
it.  The  vital  processes  would  be  affected  unfavorably.  Con- 
sequently the  patient  would  have  a  harder  time  to  win  out  against 
the  disease.  Any  influence  which  would  lessen  the  vigor  of  vital 
organs  in  their  struggle  against  the  poisons  of  the  disease  would 
give  the  disease  an  advantage.  A  wise  parent  or  physician  or 
friend  would  say  things  within  the  child's  hearing  which  would 
not  magnify  the  seriousness  of  the  disease,  but  which  would  give 
encouragement  and  promise  of  speedy  recovery.  Talk  of  this 
sort  would  do  something  toward  exhilarating  the  vital  processes 
so  that  they  could  resist  the  invading  disease  more  effectually. 


214  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

Suggestion  can  be  employed  to  elevate  or  to  degrade  the  morals 
of  a  community  as  well  as  to  strengthen  or  weaken  health  or  in- 
dividual character.  Here  is  an  illustration  :  A  small- 
of^aMm-^  sized  city  in  a  mid-western  state  decided  to  have  a 
munity  may  week's  "  f un "  during  the  month  of  August  last,  so  a 
or  degraded  Street  carnival  was  held.  One  of  the  streets  in  the 
tion"^^^^  center  of  the  city  was  set  aside  for  shows  and  revelry. 
A  committee  of  citizens  was  appointed  to  hunt  up 
"attractions.''  They  got  together  an  aggregation  of  fakirs, 
human  beings  with  supernumerary  limbs  and  various  deformities, 
animals  with  extra  heads  and  tails,  "educated"  animals  which 
were  represented  to  have  human  intelligence,  magicians,  fortune 
tellers,  cannibals  from  the  Pacific  Islands,  and  last,  but  not 
the  least  conspicuous,  dancing  girls  from  Cairo  and  from  the 
training  lairs  in  Chicago. 

People  of  all  ages,  conditions,  colors  and  occupations  were 
admitted  to  the  carnival.  All  sorts  of  liberties  were  permitted  ; 
there  was,  in  fact,  little  restraint  on  license.  When  citizens  of 
the  town  were  asked  why  this  carnival  was  permitted,  they 
replied  that  it  "helped  the  town."  It  brought  in  people  from 
the  surrounding  country  and  the  small  towns,  and  they  spent 
their  money  liberally.  One  man  said  that  "people  loosen  up 
when  they  attend  a  street  carnival.  They  bring  in  plenty  of 
money,  and  they  leave  it  here." 

To  heighten  the  attraction  of  carnival  week,  a  barbecue  was 
held  every  day  in  the  public  park.  An  ox  and  other  animals 
were  roasted,  and  for  a  small  sum  anyone  could  have  a  piece 
of  them.  Near  by  were  plenty  of  saloons,  so  that  no  one  need  go 
thirsty.  It  was  evident  that  the  people  imbibed  freely,  because 
many  intoxicated  persons  were  seen  on  the  streets  every  night. 
At  about  noon  each  day  there  was  a  "calathumpian  parade." 
Citizens  of  the  place  impersonated  domestic  and  wild  beasts. 
They  went  through  the  principal  streets  disporting  themselves  as 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION  215 

animals  would  do.  The  more  beast-like  the  performance  of 
anyone  in  the  parade  the  better  performer  he  was  voted  to  be. 

Contrast  the  street  carnival  in  this  city  with  another  in  a  city 
of  about  the  same  size  situated  in  one  of  the  irrigated  fruit  valleys 
in  the  Far  West.  Not  many  years  ago  it  was  a  barren  desert. 
But  water  was  brought  from  the  mountains,  fruit  trees  were 
planted,  and  to-day  it  is  one  of  the  great  fruit  valleys  of  the 
world.  Last  summer  a  three-day  blossom  festival  was  held. 
The  people  vied  with  one  another  in  devising  original  designs 
with  blossoms  of  all  the  varieties  of  fruit  grown  in  the  valley. 
There  were  various  elaborate  performances  in  which  blossoms 
played  the  leading  role.  The  festival  attracted  people  from 
the  towns  around,  and  they  were  delighted  with  the  celebra- 
tion. 

Which  sort  of  street  carnival  will  have  the  best  influence  upon 
the  behavior  of  people  in  a  city,  and  particularly  upon  the  con- 
duct of  the  young?  The  answer  is  at  hand.  Barbecues,  "cala- 
thumpian  parades,"  displays  of  deformed  human  beings,  whether 
real  or  deceptive,  strange,  ugly  creatures,  and  lewd  singing  and 
dancing  all  lower  the  moral  tone  of  any  community.  Drunk- 
enness and  vicious  behavior  of  every  sort  are  suggested  and  en- 
couraged by  such  orgies.  No  community  having  any  regard 
for  the  moral  welfare  of  its  people,  especially  its  youth,  would 
tolerate  such  suggestions  of  barbarism. 

The  blossom  festival,  on  the  other  hand,  is  refining,  -elevating 
and  refreshing.  The  people  who  participate  in  and  witness 
festivals  of  this  sort  will  not  be  incited  to  sensuous  indulgence. 
They  will  not  relapse  into  vicious  conduct  as  they  will  usually  do 
in  the  sort  of  carnival  first  described. 

One  must  fight  incessantly  against  the  spread  of  vice  in  modern 
life  through  agencies  like  street  shows.  Such  a  carnival  may 
in  a  single  week  unloose  passions  which  cannot  be  controlled 
again  for  many  a  month.     It  may  suggest  evil  conduct  which 


2i6  MENTAL    DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

the  home,  the  church  and  the  school  are  doing  all  they  can  to 
keep  out  of  the  Hves  of  the  young. 

In  this  connection  mention  should  be  made  of  the  influence 

of  the  gayety  or  burlesque  theater  in  spreading  vice.     The  chief 

characteristic  of  the  shows  presented  in  them  is  lewd- 

Suggesbon  ^  ^  _ 

in  the  ness  in  speech,  in  song  and  especially  in  the  dance. 

Women  who  are  reading  these  lines  would  probably 
not  be  admitted  to  the  burlesque  theaters  in  their  respective 
communities,  but  they  can  gain  some  notion  of  what  goes  on 
within  by  observing  the  pictures  on  the  billboards  in  front  of 
these  places.  A  burlesque  performance  is  built  around  the  sug- 
gestion of  sexual  vice.  The  actors  are  for  the  most  part  gathered 
out  of  the  red  light  and  tenderloin  districts,  and  they  aim  to 
suggest  in  dress,  song  and  dance  what  they  practice  in  the 
brothel. 

Observe  the  audiences  in  these  theaters.  They  are  made  up 
entirely  of  fairly  young  men.  Most  of  them  are  smoking ;  some 
of  them  bring  drink  in  with  them,  and  others  can  easily  get  it 
outside  the  door.  They  have  all  been  attracted  by  the  prospect 
of  seeing  vice  luridly  displayed.  The  managers  know  they  can 
secure  audiences  when  they  depict  vicious  scenes  on  the  bill- 
boards. But  they  would  not  dare  to  go  as  far  on  the  billboards 
as  they  go  on  the  stage.  Hardly  any  community  is  so  indecent 
as  to  tolerate  on  the  street  what  is  allowed  to  go  on  freely  in  the 
theater.  ' 

What  is  the  effect  upon  a  community  of  the  suggestion  of 
lewdness?  There  is  no  mystery  about  the  matter.  The  path 
from  the  burlesque  or  gayety  theater  to  the  tenderloin  district  is 
short  and  direct.  It  is  about  as  certain  as  the  law  of  gravitation 
that  lewd  suggestion  will  lead  to  lewd  indulgence.  Communities 
recognize  this  in  a  way  when  they  prevent  vicious  suggestion 
on  the  street;  but  they  let  it  flaunt  itself  openly  on  the  stage. 

Every  day  the  newspapers  tell  tales  of  the  misdeeds  of  young 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION  217 

men.  Their  vicious  conduct  was  probcibly  incited  in  the  bur- 
lesque theater.  When  animal  impulse  is  aroused  by  suggestive 
songs  and  dances  the  chances  are  that  it  will  find  concrete 
expression  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases.  In  spite  of  this, 
communities  permit  the  vicious  theaters  to  continue  to  sow  cor- 
ruption among  men  when  it  is  certain  that  the  harvest  will  be 
licentiousness. 

Vice  is  largely  a  matter  of  suggestion ;  if  the  latter  cannot  be 
eliminated,  then  the  former  cannot  be  held  in  check.  One  can 
hardly  think  of  a  more  fruitless  enterprise  than  to  give  formal 
lectures  on  morality  to  persons  who  are  subjected  constantly  to 
vicious  suggestion  in  theaters  whose  sole  object  is  to  incite  passion. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

OVERSTR.\IN    IX    KDUCWTIOX:     WASTEFUL    PRACTICES 

From  one  point  of  view  we  would  not  expect  either  children 
or  adults  to  be  overtaxed  in  these  times.  We  do  not  work  as 
Present-  ^3.Yd  now  as  our  forefathers  did  fifty  years  ago.  In 
day  former  days  the  young  and  the  old  alike  arose  with 

conditions  -i     i 

that  cause  the  sun  and  were  often  busy  at  hard  labor  until  the 
overstrain  ^^^  went  (lown  at  night.  This  program  was  carried 
out  day  after  day,  week  after  week  and  month  after  month. 
Nowadays  there  are  fewer  hours  of  labor,  and  work  is  not  so 
heavy  as  it  was  formerly,  for  we  have  learned  how  to  make  ma- 
chines perform  the  heaviest  part  of  our  tasks. 

And  yet  we  learn  from  many  sources  that  there  is  overstrain 
among  the  young  as  well  as  among  adults.  The  reports  made 
by  medical  examiners  in  the  public  schools  of  all  the  larger  cities 
show  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  pupils  show  ''nerve  signs." 
That  is  to  say,  they  are  in  a  tense  or  weakened  nervous  condition. 
This  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  young 
persons,  as  well  as  adults,  do  more  work  to-day  that  overtaxes 
brain  and  nerves  than  they  did  thirty  years  ago.  The  writer  can 
remember  the  time  when  most  country  boys  from  fourteen  years 
onward  would  follow  a  plow  all  day  long ;  and  while  they  would 
be  weary  at  night,  they  would  not  be  nervously  fatigued.  There 
is  a  difference  between  being  muscularly  tired  and  being  nerv- 
ously tense  and  strained.  Modern  urban  life  tends  to  put 
children's  nerves  on  edge.  Even  if  a  child  does  not  have  to  do 
any  hard  work,  mental  or  physical,  he  can  still  hardly  escape  from 
being  intensely  stimulated  much  of  the  time.     He  must  adapt 

218 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  219 

himself  to-day  to  many  more  people  than  would  have  been  re- 
quired of  him  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  this  is  likely  to  develop 
nervous  tension.  Following  a  plow  all  day  long  is  easy  on  the 
nerves  compared  with  meeting  different  people  throughout  the 
day  and  adjusting  oneself  to  them.  In  addition,  a  large  propor- 
tion of  young  persons  must  be  on  crowded  streets  a  considerable 
part  of  each  day,  dodging  vehicles,  getting  out  of  the  way  of 
pedestrians,  being  angered  because  of  the  apparent  meanness  or 
selfishness  of  adults,  or  being  intensely  stimulated  in  rivalry  with 
competitors  or  in  anticipation  oi  approaching  exciting  events. 

One  who  is  using  his  muscles  mainly  is  working  along  lines  of 
least  resistance  as  compared  with  one  who  is  using  his  brain 
constantly,  whether  in  study,  in  social  adaptation,  or  in  dealing 
with  complicated  and  constantly  shifting  situations  such  as  city 
life  presents.  In  following  a  plow  the  work  soon  becomes  largely 
automatic,  and  the  mind  moves  along  unobstructedly  in  a  sort 
of  day  dream.  The  plowman  is  not  constantly  wrestling  with 
difi&cult  problems.  His  energies  are  being  expended  mostly 
through  his  muscles,  thus  relieving  his  nervous  system.  When 
he  has  finished  his  day's  work  he  can  lie  down  and  he  may  be 
asleep  as  soon  as  his  head  touches  the  pillow. 

But  it  is  quite  the  reverse  with  one  who  has  been  chiefly  us- 
ing his  brain  all  day,  who  has  been  trying  to  solve  involved 
problems  of  one  kind  or  another,  and  who  has  not  used  his  muscles 
very  actively.  When  night  comes  the  brain  and  nervous  system 
of  such  a  person  are  apt  to  be  unduly  stimulated  and  he  cannot 
relax  immediately.  Often  he  will  lie  awake  for  hours  after  he 
retires.  He  may  talk  in  his  sleep  and  be  partially  aroused  during 
the  night.  The  nervous  system  does  not  become  entirely  re- 
laxed at  any  time.  But  the  plowboy  can  probably  secure  pro- 
found sleep  during  the  entire  night. 

Take  a  young  person  who  is  in  contact  with  many  people 
of  different  dispositions,  who  is  in  a  large,  complex  school  for 


2  20     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

several  hours  each  day,  who  has  parties  to  give  and  to  attend, 
whose  home  is  in  a  more  or  less  excited  state  constantly  because 
of  the  compUcated  life  which  is  streaming  through  it,  —  such  a 
child  is  very  likely  to  become  overstrained.  He  may  have 
''colds''  or  indigestion,  or  a  fever,  but  the  fundamental  cause 
is  nervous  overstrain. 

In  remedying  this  condition,  the  first  point  to  appreciate  is  that 

overstrain  results  from  the  effort  to  adapt  oneself  to  too  many 

, .  ,       and  too  complex  situations.     Every  reader  of  these 

The  chief  ^  ... 

cause  of  Imes  has  probably  at  some  time  had  the  expenence  of 
overstrain  having  half  a  dozen  problems  pressing  upon  him  for 
solution  at  the  same  time.  His  attention  was  drawn  first  here 
and  now  there,  and  again  in  another  direction,  and  he  could  not 
go  forward  in  any  direction  because  he  was  in  the  hands,  so  to 
speak,  of  conflicting  and  competing  ideas  and  desires.  He  was 
literally  torn  by  mental  conflict.  So  long  as  competing  or 
conflicting  ideas  prevent  one  from  working  through  first  one 
problem  and  then  another,  he  will  be  tense  and  he  will  feel  strain 
and  stress.  Some  persons,  children  as  well  as  adults,  are  able 
to  deal  %vith  complicated  situations  much  more  easily  than  other 
persons,  because  they  have  the  power  of  shutting  out  every 
problem  but  the  one  they  are  working  on  at  the  moment.  When 
the  one  in  hand  is  solved  they  take  up  the  next  one,  and  so  they 
go ;  and  they  do  not  worry  about  their  tasks.  Such  persons  will 
be  likely  to  get  through  a  relatively  large  amount  of  difficult 
mental  work  without  overstrain.  But  persons  who  do  not  have 
the  power  to  work  on  one  problem  at  a  time  and  keep  all 
others  out  of  their  attention  \vill  probably  become  overtaxed  if 
they  are  plunged  into  the  complexities  of  present-day  city  life. 
In  preventing  overstrain  in  a  child,  then,  we  must  limit  the 
number  of  problems  that  press  upon  him  at  any  moment.  This 
is  always  an  individual  matter.  The  parent  or  the  teacher  who 
knows  the  child  can  alone  determine  how  complicated  a  life  he 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDU(  ATION  22 1 

can  live,  —  whether  he  can  do  all  the  work  of  his  grade  in 
school,  whether  he  can  participate  in  competitions  and  contests, 
whether  he  can  endure  all  the  examinations  that  are  ordinarily 
given  in  the  school,  and  whether  he  can  take  part  in  outside 
activities,  —  practice  music  for  instance,  and  attend  parties. 
Some  children  can  do  all  these  things  and  not  show  overstrain, 
while  other  children  would  be  broken  in  trying  to  carry  through 
so  complicated  a  program. 

There  are  so  much  and  so  many  kinds  of  work  to  be  done  in 
our  country  that  many  feel  they  should  exert  themselves  to  the 
utmost.     There  are  so  many  subjects  to  be  mastered 
in  the  schools  that  pupils  are  being  taught  under  for  periods 
pressure.     In  towns  and  cities,  at  any  rate,  there  is  un-  °^  ^"'®* 
ceasing  motion.     Not  only  are  human  beings  running  here  and 
there  under  full  steam,  but  the  streets  are  crowded  at  all  hours 
of  day  and  night  with  noisy,  swift-moving  vehicles.     The  auto- 
mobile has  increased  the  pace  in  American  life,  and  it  has  already 
exerted  an  influence  upon  the  nervous  condition  of  the  people. 
It  has  increased  the  feeling  of  restlessness.     In  many  places  there 
is  no  longer  any  quiet.     Neither  adults  nor  children  see  anything 
at  rest ;    and  people  tend  to  reproduce  in   their  own  actions 
whatever  lack  of  poise  and  composure  they  feel  in  their  environ- 
ment. 

The  home  and  school  should  make  an  attempt  to  counteract 
the  exciting  influences  of  the  street.  At  certain  periods,  every 
pupil  in  school  and  every  member  of  a  family  should  be  quiet. 
Young  and  old  alike  should  learn  to  sit  still.  It  will  not  accom- 
plish much,  of  course,  merely  to  tell  children  to  keep  quiet ;  this 
is  more  Hkely  to  accentuate  restlessness  than  to  subdue  it.  But 
if  someone  will  tell  or  read  a  captivating  story  every  day,  or 
describe  an  interesting  event  or  object  or  natural  law,  so  that 
all  who  hear  it  will  listen  and  be  still,  it  will  prove  an  excellent 
discipline  and  a  restorative  for  the  nervous  system. 


222  MENIAL   DEVELOPMENT  ANE)   EDUCATION 

It  is  peculiarly  unfortunate  that  the  voices  of  American 
parents  and  teachers  often  increase  the  tension  and  excitability 
of  the  young.  A  high-pitched,  rasping,  loud,  restless  voice  will 
overstimulate  the  majority  of  children  within  its  reach.  Even 
adults  cannot  listen  c^uietly  to  such  a  voice.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  well-placed,  well-controlled,  modulated  voice  is  soothing 
to  an  overwrought  nervous  system.  One  who  will  make  ob- 
servations can  see  persons  who  are  tense  and  restless  becoming 
calm  under  the  influence  of  such  a  voice.  Parents  and  teachers 
should  keep  this  fact  in  mind,  for  one  can  control  the  quality  of 
his  voice  to  some  extent.  If  he  allows  himself  to  become  tense 
the  evil  efifect  will  be  apparent  in  his  voice,  which  is  delicately 
responsive  to  one's  mental  and  nervous  condition. 

Something  could  be  done  in  the  school,  too,  to  offset  the  lack 
of  poise  in  the  life  outside.  In  the  Montessori  schools  there  are 
brief  periods  of  quiet  each  day.  A  signal  is  sounded  on  the  piano, 
the  room  is  darkened,  the  children  become  relaxed  and  quiet 
They  remain  so  for  a  little  time ;  then  another  signal  is  sounded, 
the  room  is  made  light  again,  and  the  work  progresses.  Every 
schoolroom  should  have  several  brief  periods  during  the  day 
when  the  pupils  should  relax.  There  is  no  danger  of  overdoing 
relaxation  in  American  life.  The  danger  is  on  the  other  side,  — 
that  there  will  not  be  enough  of  it,  no  matter  what  program  we 
may  follow  in  the  effort  to  secure  it. 

There  are  practices  in  many  modern  homes  which  lead  to 

waste  of  energy.     According  to  the  fashion  in  many  households, 

infants  of  a  few  months  as  well  as  children  of  maturer 

nervous        years  are  permitted  to  be  in  the  presence  of  the  older 

energy  in       members  of  the  family  much  of  the  time.     Guests  al- 

the  home  •' 

ways  expect  to  see  the  baby,  to  hold  it  and  to  stimu- 
late it  in  various  ways  to  see  how  prettily  and  intelligently  it 
reacts.  This  practice  would  not  be  so  objectionable  if  it  were 
not  that  when  the  average  adult  has  a  little  child  in  his  arms  he 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  223 

is  usually  intense  and  restless  in  voice  and  actions.  Few  people 
seem  to  appreciate  how  much  such  treatment  taxes  the  nervous 
strength  of  an  infant.  But  let  an  older  person  imagine  what  a 
strain  it  would  be  to  have  excited  people  about  him  constantly, 
tossing  and  patting  him,  and  making  all  manner  of  facial  and 
vocal  demonstrations  for  his  entertainment.  How  much  more 
it  must  wear  upon  a  child  to  whom  these  things  are  new  and 
strange,  all  arousing  strong  emotions  of  fear,  curiosity,  or  excite- 
ment. 

It  is  not  alone  the  trials  of  meeting  strangers  that  are  extremely 
fatiguing  to  young  children,  but  the  experiences  with  parents 
and  other  members  of  the  family  are  often  as  exhaust-  xhe  teased 
ing.  The  young  child,  with  its  fresh,  innocent  ways,  is  '^^^ 
not  infrequently  regarded  as  a  plaything  for  the  entertainment 
of  its  elders,  and  so  is  teased  and  tormented  in  one  way  or  another, 
because  its  responses  are  so  novel  and  interesting.  Of  course, 
parents  would  not  call  such  treatment  teasing,  but  it  is  precisely 
what  it  amounts  to  from  the  child's  standpoint. 

Here  is  a  scene  which  is  typical  of  much  that  may  be  observed 
in  one's  environment  if  he  has  occasion  to  look  for  it.  A  cer- 
tain child  disliked  to  have  anything  touch  its  nose,  and  would 
make  the  liveliest  efforts  to  dispel  whatever  came  in  contact 
therewith.  The  sweet  baby  movements  were  naturally  amusing 
to  an  adult,  who  did  not  see  anything  in  them  but  fun  for  him- 
self. Frequently  some  mature  person,  who  knew  the  child's 
characteristic  in  this  regard,  would  place  a  finger  or  other  object 
near  the  delicate  member,  to  see  the  little  one  strive  with  arms, 
head  and  body  to  drive  it  off.  On  one  occasion  a  woman,  whose 
years  should  have  taught  her  better,  was  seen  to  tantalize  the 
child  for  some  time,  until  finally  it  became  fatigued.  When  it 
grew  restless  and  began  crying,  it  was  grabbed  up,  tossed  and 
thrown  about,  and  talked  to  in  a  loud  voice.  This  violent  stimu- 
lation overcame  for  the  moment  the  child's  impulse  to  cry,  but 


2  24     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

had  the  clYi'ct  lurtht-r  to  t;itiguc  it,  which  was  shown  later  in 
continual  crying  until  it  fell  asleep.  If  one  will  think  of  such 
things  going  on  day  after  da)-  throughout  the  early  life  of  the 
child,  the  irritable,  unbalanced,  disagreeable  children  of  one's 
acquaintance  may  be  accounted  for,  at  least  in  part. 

The  writer  recently  had  opportunity  to  study  with  some  care 
the  effect  which  a  woman  possessing  a  high-pitched,  irritating 
voice  and  intense  features  and  manner,  but  otherwise  of  most 
estimable  characteristics,  had  upon  a  little  child.  Whenever 
she  was  near  H.  she  insisted  upon  taking  her,  and  she  thought 
the  proper  mode  of  entertainment  was  to  shake  and  toss  and 
pat  her,  and  make  a  great  amount  of  noise  and  ado  over  her. 
As  a  consequence  a  half  hour  of  such  treatment  was  enough  to 
fatigue  H.  for  a  whole  day,  and  her  disposition  at  such  times 
would  be  quite  changed  from  a  happy,  good-natured  child  to  one 
easily  irritated  and  satisfied  with  none  of  her  ordinary  pleasures. 
A  nervous,  irritable  parent  will  be  apt  to  nag  his  children,  to  be 
constantly  forbidding  or  commanding  them,  and  this  will  arouse 
emotions  which  will  draw  off  nervous  energy  very  rapidly.  An- 
tagonism is  a  breeder  of  nerve  tension  and  some  children  seem 
hardly  ever  to  be  free  from  it  during  waking  hours.  The  prin- 
ciple applies  to  the  schoolroom  as  fully  as  to  the  home. 

Finally,  noise  seems  to  have  an  exciting  effect  upon  an  in- 
dividual at  all  times,  even  when  he  is  asleep.  It  appears  that 
„  .  there  is  in  the  mind  a  sort  of  memory  of  earlier  racial 

Noise  as  a  _  ^  •'         _ 

nervous  experiences  where  noise  was  a  most  significant  affair. 
An  animal  that  could  not  awaken  instantly  upon 
sounds  of  howling  or  crackling  or  crunching  or  heavy  breathing 
in  its  vicinity  would  have  little  chance  of  escaping  from  enemies 
lurking  everywhere.  And  now,  although  man  is  quite  safe  in 
an  environment  of  any  amount  of  noise,  yet  he  has  not  fully 
outgrown  this  old  racial  tendency  to  be  alert  when  he  hears 
noises.     The  effect  of  noise  upon  a  sleeping  subject  has  been 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION 


225 


studied  by  Lombard  and  others,  and  the  results  seem  conclusive 
in  showing  that  even  a  slight  noise  causes  a  decrease  in  peripheral 
blood  supply  as  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustrations,  in- 
dicating that  the  blood  is  flowing  in  increasing  quantities  toward 
the  brain,  which  tends  to  return  to  the  waking   state.     In  the 


VHMII, 


\ 


''""liiliiriiiiiiipni'"""' 


2  iHI 

i,ii'"""''iMiiii,i„,.niii|ii,nniiii"'" 


iiiin" 


liliinniiiiipiii''' i|„ii 


FiG-  33-  —  Plethysmographic  record  from  the  arm  of  a  person  sleeping  in  the  laboratory- 
A  fall  in  the  curve  indicates  a  decrease  in  the  volume  of  the  arm.  The  curve  is  to  be 
read  in  the  direction  of  the  arrow,  i,  the  night  watchman  entered  the  laboratory  ;  2,  the 
watchman  spoke;  3,  watchman  went  out.  These  changes  occurred  without  waking 
the  subject. — ^  Donaldson. 

first  hours  of  life  an  infant  will  jump  with  fright  if  one  speaks 
in  a  harsh  voice  near  him,  or  if  a  door  slams,  or  if  any  other 
loud  noise  plays  on  him.  So  when  older  children  hear  noises 
on  the  street  they  are  excited,  and  are  impelled  to  action  of 
some  sort.  How  a  drum  will  stimulate  a  child  !  A  drum  may 
— •— 


Fig.  34.  —  Record  similar  to  that  above.     Change  in  the  volume  of  the  arm  of  sleeping 
subject,  caused  by  the  sound  of  a  music  box  which  was  started  at*.  —  Donaldson. 

be  a  cause  of  overstimulation  if  used  too  continuously,  and  the 
same  is  true  of  all  noise-making  toys.  A  barking  dog  in  a 
house  with  children  will  be  Hkely  to  excite  them  greatly.  The 
writer  has  observed  the  effect  on  several  children  of  three  loud- 
barking  dogs  who  gather  about  them  whenever  they  go  out  to 


226  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

play.  The  children  are  continually  excited  and  show  that  the 
experience  is  fatiguing. 

Psychologists  have  recently  been  making  tests  to  determine 
the  effect  of  noise  on  attention  and  on  the  rapidity  and  accuracy 
of  intellectual  work.  They  have  found  that  while  many  per- 
sons can  work  as  rapidly  and  as  accurately  in  a  noisy  as  in  a 
quiet  place,  when  they  perform  tasks  that  require  action  mainly 
rather  than  reflection,  still  in  all  cases  they  exert  more  effort 
when  they  work  under  noisy  as  compared  with  quiet  conditions. 
They  may  not  know  they  are  expending  more  energy,  but  ex- 
periments have  shown  that  this  is  true. 

How  is  such  a  matter  as  this  tested  ?  This  is  one  way  it  is 
done :  a  subject  is  performing  a  task  in  which  he  looks  at  ex- 
posed letters  and  presses  a  particular  telegraph  key  according  to 
the  letter  exposed.  This  task  can  be  complicated  in  all  sorts  of 
ways,  so  that  he  will  have  to  translate  the  exposed  letter  into  a 
code,  and  that  into  a  figure,  and  that  into  a  color,  and  then  he 
will  press  the  proper  key.  He  will  perform  this  task  when  every- 
thing is  quiet,  and  then  later  he  will  perform  it  when  there  are 
noises  of  various  kinds  about  him.  An  electrical  apparatus 
registers  his  performance  so  that  it  can  be  determined  with  ac- 
curacy whether  he  is  hindered  or  helped  by  the  noise.  Also, 
this  electrical  apparatus  indicates  precisely  how  much  force  he 
puts  on  the  key  when  he  presses  it.  He  does  not  know  that  his 
effort  is  being  recorded.  He  is  simply  performing  the  task  as 
best  he  can  without  being  aware  of  the  effect  which  the  noise 
is  having  on  him.  In  many  tests  of  this  kind  individuals  showed 
the  effect  of  the  noise  in  increased  tension.  Nature  appears 
to  say  to  one  in  a  noisy  situation,  —  ''You  are  being  disturbed. 
You  must  resist  distraction.  You  must  therefore  exert  yourself. 
Expend  more  energy  so  that  you  can  perform  your  task  and  not 
be  hindered  by  this  noise." 

There  is  another  interesting  fact  revealed  by  these  experiments. 


0\ERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  227 

When  noise  disturbance  occurs  most  subjects  articulate  their 
tasks.  This  assists  them  apparently  to  resist  the  disturbance. 
When  they  begin  to  articulate,  the  breathing  is  affected.  It  is 
possible  in  these  experiments  to  record  accurately  the  effect  upon 
breathing.  The  results  indicate  that  noise  arouses  the  resist- 
ing forces  in  one's  organism,  and  this  means  that  he  is  trying  to 
stick  to  his  work  and  not  be  diverted  by  the  noise  around  him. 

The  practical  outcome  of  such  experiments  is  clear.  Persons 
who  work  under  noisy  conditions  waste  energy.  One  can  often 
see  the  effect  of  this  on  teachers  who  have  charge  of  noisy  school- 
rooms. The  tensions  developed  by  the  noise  are  often  revealed 
in  the  features  and  in  the  voice,  and  unfortunately  these  tensions 
not  infrequently  lead  to  nervous  depletion. 

Also,  one  can  observe  the  effect  of  noise  disturbance  on  the 
pupils  in  a  schoolroom.  If  they  do  the  regular  work  of  the 
school  they  are  required  to  expend  much  energy  to  resist  the 
disturbance,  and  so  they  are  more  readily  fatigued  than  they 
would  be  if  they  were  working  under  conditions  of  quiet.  The 
same  is  true  in  the  home.  When  a  child  is  trying  to  study  and 
some  one  is  pounding  on  the  piano,  or  a  dog  is  barking,  or  there 
is  other  disturbing  noise,  he  inevitably  wastes  energy.  He 
develops  tensions  which  tend  to  become  fixed,  and  so  lead  to 
habitual  dissipation  of  energy.  Probably  one  who  is  accustomed 
to  work  under  noisy  conditions  can  do  so  with  less  waste  of  en- 
ergy than  one  who  has  had  no  experience  of  this  sort;  but  at 
the  same  time  it  is  likely  that  one  can  never  reach  the  point  where 
noise  will  have  no  effect  on  him. 

During  the  past  decade  a  great  deal  has  been  said,  aUke  in 
the  educational  and  in  the  secular  press,  regarding  overpressure 
in  education.     Physicians  and  educators  have  noted  overstrain 
with  apprehension  the  apparently  increasing  number  »"  the 

,  .  .  .  schools 

of  pupils  in  the  higher  schools  who  are  deficient  in  that 

vigor  and  robustness  of  body  and  mind  which  are  essential  for 


2  28  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

success  in  the  battle  of  life.  We  are  told  that  nervous  diseases 
are  much  more  frequent  in  youth  to-day  than  they  were  a  gen- 
eration ago,  and  the  fault  is  often  said  to  lie  with  the  schools. 
This  feeling  has  been  so  marked  and  widespread  that  many  in- 
vestigations have  been  prosecuted  in  Europe,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent in  our  own  country,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  true 
condition  of  affairs  respecting  the  amount  of  work  required  of 
students,  and  the  effects  thereof.  Thus  far  little  of  final  value 
has  been  attained ;  but  yet  the  conviction  is  deepening  in  the 
pubhc  mind  that  education  is  too  much  of  a  forcing  process, 
which  makes  demands  upon  energies  that  should  be  saved  for 
the  use  of  \ital  organs  during  their  growing  periods.  Physicians 
have  been  urgent  in  their  demands  that  the  work  of  the  schools 
be  lightened.  Key,  in  his  "School  Hygiene,"  is  emphatic  in 
his  statements  that  the  children  of  Sweden  are  seriously  over- 
taxed. Nesteroff  makes  similar  statements  with  reference  to 
the  Russian  school  children.  Ballantyne,  of  England,  declares 
that  the  English  children  are  being  seriously  injured  by  over- 
pressure in  the  schools.  In  this  connection  one  recalls  Spencer's 
indictment  of  the  English  schools,  made  over  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago.  Schuyten  and  Lobsien  found  that  the  fatigue 
curve  rises  significantly  with  school  children  from  September 
to  July,  and  falls  oflf  at  holiday  times.  Oppenheim  is  unsparing 
in  his  criticism  of  the  present  regime  in  our  own  schools.  Keating, 
after  long  experience  with  diseases  of  children,  finds  that  many 
of  them  have  their  origin  in  excessive  strain  incident  to  school 
work,  and  he,  too,  insists  upon  reform. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  determine  the  amount  of  study 
which  may  be  safely  undertaken  by  a  pupil  at  different  stages 
in  his  progress  through  the  schools.  It  must  be  apparent,  how- 
ever, that  it  is  impossible  to  formulate  any  general  law  respecting 
this  matter.  Individuals  differ  so  greatly  in  the  amount  of 
energy  which  may  be  expended  in  intellectual  and  physical  ac- 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  229 

tivity  that  no  rule  could  apply  to  all.  Again,  the  kind  of  work 
done  and  the  conditions  under  which  it  is' prosecuted  must 
exercise  an  important  influence  upon  the  prodigality  with  which 
energy  is  expended.  It  seems,  though,  to  be  the  view  of  those 
most  competent  to  form  an  opinion  that  children  in  the  elemen- 
tary school  should  not  spend  more  than  three  hours  a  day  in 
mental  labor.  This  period  may  be  gradually  lengthened  as  the 
pupil  develops,  until  the  limit  of  not  more  than  eight  hours  a 
day  all  told  is  reached  in  the  high  school  or  college. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  injurious  effects  of  study  upon  the 
health  of  pupils,  of  which  we  hear  so  much,  is  due  more  largely 
to  the  unhygienic  conditions  under  which  the  work  is  carried 
on  than  to  mental  application  per  se.  During  waking  hours 
the  mind  must  be  constantly  active  in  some  direction ;  and  if 
study  can  be  done  under  proper  conditions,  it  is  probable  that 
it  will  not  be  more  fatiguing  than  other  sorts  of  mental  occupa- 
tion. It  is  not  so  much  a  question  of  the  amount  of  study  as  of 
the  circumstances  under  which  the  study  is  conducted  ;  except, 
of  course,  that  if  a  young  child  spends  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day 
in  study  he  cannot  meet  the  requirements  of  hygiene  in  respect 
to  exercise  and  sleep. 

The  statement  has  frequently  been  made  at  educational  meet- 
ings of  late  that  children  should  be  able  to  do  all  the  work  of  the 
school  day  in  half  the  time  they  usually  devote  to  it,  if  their 
attention  could  be  concentrated  upon  the  tasks  in  hand.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the  time  of  the  aver- 
age child  that  should  be  devoted  to  exercise  is  wasted  sitting  in 
school  seats.  This  it  is  mainly  that  weakens  the  constitution,  and 
makes  children  unable  to  resist  dise.ase.  Bancroft  says  that  sit- 
ting, and  particularly  reading  and  writing,  is  abnormal,  and  is 
conducive  to  postures  that  restrict  circulation,  respiration  and 
assimilation,  the  three  fundamental  biological  processes.  Pro- 
longed examination  periods  work  the  greatest  harm  in  the  schools. 


230  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

In  the  high  schools  and  colleges,  students  often  spend  over  their 
books  as  many  as  sixteen  hours  a  day  for  two  or  three  weeks  at 
a  stretch.  The  work  is  done  under  great  tension,  too,  which 
makes  it  especially  wasteful.  There  is  need  of  reform  in  this 
respect. 

The  implements  children  employ  in  their  school  tasks  are 
often  responsible  for  considerable  needless  drain  upon  the  nervous 
w  t  f  m  system,  —  such  apparently  insignificant  articles  as 
excessively  writing  pens,  pencils,  and  the  like.  Peripheral  co- 
ordinations fatigue  children,  and  it  may  be  adults  also, 
more  readily  than  coarser  activities.  Thus,  fine  needlework  is, 
hour  after  hour,  more  fatiguing  to  most  women  than  washing 
dishes;  and  ''getting  pigs  out  of  clover"  is  a  greater  strain  on 
most  men  than  playing  golf  or  croquet ;  though  habit  and  taste 
are,  of  course,  important  factors  in  these  matters.  In  highly 
coordinated  work  much  energy  is  apt  to  overflow  into  by-paths, 
so  to  speak.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fundamental  coordinations 
have  become  so  facile  in  the  individual  as  a  result  of  racial  in- 
heritance that  they  can  apparently  be  performed  without  waste. 
When  a  boy  is  washing  his  slate  one  will  notice  fewer  wasteful 
tensions  and  actions  than  when  he  is  trying  to  write  in  a  finely 
coordinated  way;  and  the  principle  seems  to  have  universal 
application. 

The  position  here  taken  is  by  no  means  fully  warranted  by 
experimental  evidence,  and  there  are  those  who  maintain  that 
through  habit  the  individual  may  become  as  economical  in  the 
use  of  peripheral  as  of  fundamental  coordinations.  The  writer's 
observations,  however,  lead  him  to  a  different  view.  Adult 
students  say  that  very  fine  microscopical  work  with  exact  repre- 
sentation in  drawing  always  fatigues  them  more  readily  than 
coarse  activities  of  any  sort.  Professors  who  write  much  say 
that  a  very  fine-pointed  pen  used  on  highly-glazed  paper  or 
paper  that  is  readily  punctured  is  exceedingly  'trying  to  the 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  231 

nerves."  The  writer  has  been  able  to  gain  an  item  relating  to 
this  point  from  the  experience  of  a  distinguished  physician  in 
Buffalo,  a  specialist  in  diseases  of  the  nose  and  throat.  Some 
of  his  work  involves  very  delicate  operations  requiring  accurate 
coordinations  of  the  fingers.  He  says  he  never  undertakes  such 
cases  except  in  the  morning  hours,  when  he  is  at  his  best ;  and 
after  a  relatively  short  period  he  is  generally  fatigued,  so  that  he 
feels  it  necessary  to  secure  rest  before  continuing  with  his  duties. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  half  day's  work  in  his  general  practice, 
which  does  not  involve  such  exact  coordinations,  will  not  over- 
tax him. 

If  you  allow  a  child  of  seven  or  eight  to  write  with  a  fine- 
pointed  pen,  in  a  short  time  tensions  in  various  parts  of  the  body 
not  employed  in  the  writing  will  be  observed.  Often  ^nnece  - 
the  tongue  will  be  extended,  the  hand  not  engaged  will  sary  tension 
become  clinched,  and  the  head  will  begin  to  keep  time 
with  the  arm.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  pupil  writes  with  chalk 
at  the  blackboard  he  will  be  able  to  continue  for  a  longer  period 
without  overstrain.  One  will  be  impressed  with  the  wasteful- 
ness of  delicately  coordinated  activities  undertaken  too  early, 
if  he  will  observe  the  effect  of  requiring  young  children  to  do 
fine  sewing  or  weaving  or  any  work  of  tliis  sort,  whether  in  the 
home  or  in  the  school.  In  some  nurseries  the  young  are  provided 
with  small  toys  and  fragile  objects  that  have  to  be  handled  with 
care,  and  such  children  appear  never  to  be  either  vigorous  or 
happy  in  their  play.  There  is  usually  a  good  deal  of  petulance 
and  irritability  in  these  nurseries.  It  is  recognized,  of  course, 
that  with  the  development  of  the  nervous  system  greater  delicacy 
and  complexity  of  coordinations  become  possible  with  less  waste ; 
but  yet  it  is  probable  that  the  average  individual  never  reaches 
a  point  where  he  can  economically  undertake  intricate  coordina- 
tions where  coarser  ones  would  answer  just  as  well. 

Pupils  write  on  the  average  from  one  to  two  and  one  half 


232 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


hours  daily,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  prime  importance  for  them  to 
do  this  work  with  the  least  waste.  The  less  energy  that  is 
Concerning  spent  in  manipulating  the  pen  the  more  that  will  be 
pens  )(,£(  fyj.  {^J-^^^  elaboration  of  ideas  to  be  expressed  by  its 

aid.     Fine-pointed  pens  are,  at  least  for  young  children,  an 
^  abomination.     So    are  hard  lead  pencils,  es- 

pecially when  used  on  glazed  paper.  Perhaps 
the  most  wasteful  implement  of  all  is  the 
common  penholder,  a,  in  the  illustration. 
The  fingers  grip  the  small  metal  part  m, 
perspiration  readily  accumulates,  and  the 
pen  tends  to  roll  in  the  fingers.  To  overcome 
this  the  holder  is  gripped  more  tightly,  with 
serious  results  in  the  squandering  of  energy. 
In  A,  the  part  c  is  of  cork,  and  is  relatively 
much  larger  than  m.  It  absorbs  the  moisture 
from  the  fingers,  and  so  is  managed  without 
so  great  tension.  The  same  principle  applies 
to  lead  pencils.  A  highly-glazed  surface  in- 
volves waste  because  it  cannot  be  managed 
without  excessive  tension  of  the  peripheral 
muscles.  Slates  are  probably  the  most  waste- 
ful of  all  the  appliances  of  the  school. 
"Scratchy"  pens  cannot  be  too  severely  con- 
demned. Aside  from  their  irritating  influence 
metal,  usually  tin,  and    upon  the  ncrvous  systcm,  they  require  such 

IS  of  small  diameter.  ^  ^  ^  -i 

In  A  the  part  c  is  carcful  handling  that  waste  of  energy  can- 
not be  obviated.  Gold  pens  are  generally 
much  better  than  steel,  for  they  can  be 
handled  in  a  rougher  way  without  abra- 
sion  of  the  paper ;    and   steel  pens  corrode 

easily,  the  points  thus  becoming  rough,  which   prevents  easy 

manipulation. 


Fig.  35.  — .Illustrat- 
ing different  styles  of 
penholders. 

In  fl  the  part  m  is 


cork  and  is  of  a  con 
sidcrably  larger  diam- 
eter than  m. 

A  answers  the  pur- 
pose of  economy  much 
better  than  a. 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  233 

Most  children  make  hard  work  of  writing  with  a  pen ;  the 
technique  is  unnatural  to  them.  Adults  do  not  as  a  rule  re- 
member their  own  struggles  in  acquiring  the  art  of  writing. 
The  majority  of  educated  adults  write  automatically  for  the 
most  part.  They  are  unconscious  of  the  rules,  regulations 
and  restrictions  which  must  be  observed  in  making  letters  ac- 
curately and  aesthetically.  Even  if  they  are  accomplished  pen- 
men, they  are  not  as  painstaking  in  their  handwriting  as  they 
were  required  to  be  when  they  were  pupils  in  the  elementary 
school.  Teachers  often  insist  that  their  children  must  write 
with  precision  and  finish.  Even  so,  it  is  exceedingly  difficult 
and  often  impossible  for  a  child  before  the  teens  to  control  his 
hand  and  finger  movements  so  that  he  can  make  his  letters  of 
exactly  the  proper  heights,  spacings  and  slant.  This  is  one 
reason  why  he  dislikes  so  much  to  write  a  letter  or  a  composition. 

Teachers  will  not  as  a  rule  allow  pupils  to  enjoy  the  swing, 
the  freedom,  and  the  individuahty  in  handwriting  which  are 
regarded  as  desirable  qualities  in  the  writing  of  adults.  A  study 
of  the  penmanship  of  a  large  number  of  grown  persons  shows 
that  they  usually  cut  off  angles  and  abbreviate  all  complex 
movements.  That  is,  under  the  stress  of  expressing  themselves 
they  economize  as  much  as  possible  in  the  mere  mechanics  of 
penmanship.  Most  of  us  think  faster  than  we  can  write,  and 
we  tend  always  to  shorten  the  process  of  making  letters.  Writing 
is  a  much  slower  and  clumsier  means  of  expression  than  speech, 
but  we  often  economize  even  in  the  use  of  words,  as  when  we 
cut  off  wg's,  and  clip  words  in  other  ways.  This  abbreviating 
process,  with  elimination  of  unnecessary  technical  detail,  is 
especially  marked  in  handwriting. 

The  technique  involved  in  typewriting  is  simpler  than  in  the 
case  of  handwriting,  and  it  is  not  so  burdensome  to  the  child. 
The  movements  required  to  operate  the  keys  are  much  like  those 
he  is  making  frequently  in  his  finger,  hand  and  arm  activities  in 


234     MKNTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

everyday  lif(\  TIk-  rules  and  restrictions  which  must  bo  heeded 
in  typewriting  are  more  easily  observed  than  in  the  case  of 
The  type-  pen-writing.  Adults  have  testified  that  while  they 
writer  is        liave  not  been  able  to  make  the  use  of  the  pen  en- 

less  waste-         .... 

fui  than  the  tuelv  automatic,  cven  after  many  years  of  drill,  still 
^^^  ihcy  have  attained  this  facility  with  the  typewriter  after 

a  comparatively  short  period  of  training.  Take  a  thousand 
children  chosen  at  random,  and  it  is  probable  that  ninety-five 
per  cent  of  them  would  learn  to  write  with  the  typewriter  more 
easily  and  rapidly  than  with  the  pen. 

There  is  an  added  advantage  in  the  use  of  the  typewriter. 
If  those  who  are  reading  these  lines  will  close  their  eyes  and 
picture  words,  they  will  find  that  their  pictures  are  mostly  in 
print  forms,  and  not  in  script  forms ;  that  is,  we  tend  to  think 
of  words  in  terms  of  type  rather  than  of  script.  We  can  then 
more  readily  determine  whether  a  word  written  on  the  typewriter 
is  spelled  correctly  than  when  it  is  written  with  the  pen.  Further, 
in  cases  of  doubt  in  spelling,  we  can  more  easily  recall  printed 
than  written  letters  in  their  proper  order,  so  that  writing  with 
the  typewriter  is  of  greater  assistance  to  the  child  in  learning 
to  spell  than  is  writing  with  the  pen.  A  child  can  also  correct 
error  more  easily  in  typewriting  than  in  pen-writing. 

There  are  other  minor  advantages  in  the  use  of  the  typewriter. 
The  pupil  can  arrange  his  written  work  more  attractively  on  a 
page  with  the  typewriter  than  with  the  pen.  Typewriting  is 
more  readily  perceived  than  pen-writing,  and  so  is  easier  on  the 
eyes.  Again,  in  the  use  of  the  pen  a  young  child  usually  "bears 
on."  He  is  apt  to  develop  wasteful  tensions  in  the  fingers  which 
control  the  pen.  Often  a  pupil  is  fatigued  when  he  uses  a  pen 
for  ten  minutes,  especially  if  it  has  a  fine  point  and  if  the  holder 
is  made  of  metal.  All  these  difficulties  are  largely  avoided  in  the 
use  of  the  typewriter.  Ordinarily  a  better  position  is  maintained 
in  writing  with  the  typewriter  than  with  the  pen.     Nine  out  of 


OVERSTRAIN   IN  EDUCATION 


235 


ten  children  feci  the  strain  of  pen-writing ;  they  bend  over  their 
task,  and  in  fact  put  their  whole  nervous  and  muscular  system 
into  it.  This  is  the  chief  reason  why  pen-writing  is  exhausting 
for  many  children,  and  for  many  adults  also. 

It  does  not  seem  practicable  yet  to  furnish  typewriters  for  all 
children  in  public  schools.  But  parents  who  can  afiford  it  should 
provide  typewriters  in  their  own  homes.  Children  who  do 
school  work  at  home  should  so  far  as  is  feasible  prepare  it  on  the 
typewriter.  This  does 
not  mean  that  the  pen 
should  not  be  employed 
at  all ;  it  is  necessary,  of 
course,  to  teach  children 
to  write  with  the  pen, 
because  they  will  have 
need  to  use  it  when  the 
typewriter  is  not  at 
hand.  But  it  would  be 
better  to  put  the  em- 
phasis upon  typewriting 
rather  than  upon  pen- 
writing  in  the  early  years 
particularly. 

Needless  muscular  tensions  wherever  they  occur  must  be  re- 
garded as  squandering  vital  force.     The  body  in  either  a  standing 
or  sitting  position  is,  of  course,  acted  upon  by  gravity, 
and  if  it  be  out  of  plumb  it  tends  to  fall.     This  catas-  ^^g^^  le^d 
trophe  can  be  averted  only  by  the  action  of  muscles  *°  ^*^*® 

I  •   1  11  •  -1  1  1        °*  energy 

which  pull  agamst  gravity,  and  so  serve  to  keep  the 
body  in  equilibrium.     Imagine  then  a  person  standing  for  some 
time  in  such  a  position   thai   gravity  has   a   leverage  on  him, 
and  his  muscles  are  acting  vigorously  to  keej)  him  from  falling ; 
it  is  plain  what  this  entails  in  loss  of  nerve  force.     Pupils,  or 


Fig.  36.  —  A  posture  frequently  seen  in  the  home 
and  in  the  school.     (See  exercise  6,  page  377.) 


236  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


Fig.  37.  —  Overdoing  the  effort  to  maintain  erect  posture.     (See  exercise  6,  page  377.) 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION 


237 


adults  either  for  that  matter,  who  do  not  habitually  stand  or 
sit  so  that  the  body  is  well  poised  and  there  is  no  undue  tension, 
will  suffer  for  their  error  in  lessened  efficiency  in  both  physical 
and  mental  work. 

A  teacher  recently  said,  "I  never  allow  any  of  the  pupils  in 
my  room  to  get  into  slouchy  positions.     When  they  first  come 
in  here  they  take  every  kind  of  position,  both  in  their  Rigid 
seats  and  when  they  are  standing  to  recite.     But  they  Pasture 
soon  learn  that  I  will  not  tolerate  anything  but  a  good  position." 

What  is  a  good  position  ? 
It  is  certainly  not  a  rigid 
one,  because  rigidity  wastes 
energy.  Rigidity  also  dis- 
tracts attention,  so  that  a 
tense  person  cannot  con- 
centrate on  his  work  as  he 
otherwise  would  do.  Let 
any  reader  who  doubts  this 
make  an  experiment.  Let 
him  stand  with  his  heels 
together,  his  shoulders 
pressed  back,  eyes  to  the 
front,  hands  stiffly  at  the 
sides.  Let  him  try  to 
solve  a  problem  when  he 
is  in  such  a  position.  He 
will  discover  that  his  at- 
tention is  constantly  re- 
verting to  his  muscles,  so 
that  he  cannot  follow  a  train  of  thought  very  far. 

It  requires  fine  judgment  to  determine  in  how  far  children 
should  be  allowed  to  take  ''natural"  positions,  and  in  how  far 
they  should  be  trained  to  sit  and  stand  erect.     The  untrained 


Fig.  38.  —  Bones  are  easily  molded  into  de- 
formed positions  during  the  growing  period. 
(See  exercise  6,  page  377.) 


^58 


MKM  \L    DF.VKLOPMKM    AM)    KDUCATION 


child  tends  always  to  assume  relaxed  positions.  J I  he  he  let  alone 
to  go  his  own  way  he  will  fall  into  slouchy  habits  often,  especially 
when  he  is  sittinf^.  But  unless  he  be  permitted  to  adopt  a  re- 
laxed posture  occasionally,  he  will  be  likely  to  become  too  tense 


Fig.  3g.  —  Illustrating  a  very  common 
fault  in  school  furniture,  a  too  high  seat. 
The  child  is  unable  to  rest  the  limbs  on  the 
floor  and  leans  over  on  the  desk  for  support. 


Fig.  40.  —  Illustrating  an  evil 
posture  very  common  in  schools 
where  the  seating  is  imperfect. 


and  his  rigid  muscles  may  be  a  handicap  to  efficient  mental 

activity. 

It  is  possible  to  maintain  a  healthful  posture  in  which  the 

organs  will  have  freedom  for  their  proper  action  and  at  the  same 

time  not  be  rigid.  This  is  what  a 
teacher  should  strive  for  in  the 
training  of  his  pupils.  He  should 
try  to  train  them  to  be  at  ease 
whether  they  aresittingor  standing. 
It  requires  time  to  develop  poise 
in  children,  but  it  can  be  done. 
The  greatest  factor  in  developing 
poise  is  emulation ;  if  one  be  in 
the  presence  of  a  well-poised  per- 
FiG.  41.  — Illustrating  a  too  small    gou  he  uncousciously  imitates  him 

distance  between   the  seat  and  desk,  . 

causing  pressure  on  chest  and  stomach.      tO     a     greater     Or     ICSS     degree.       A 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION 


^39 


typical  iiulividual  could  not  be  brought  up  aiiioiif^  wcll-poiscd 
people  and  be  slouchy  or  rigid  himself.     We  all  imitate  the 


Fig.  42.  —  Illustrating  a  desk  and 
chair  too  small  for  pupil's  size,  causing 
cramping  of  the  lower  limbs. 


Fig.  43.  —  Illustrating  too  great  a 
space  between  the  seat  and  desk,  causing 
pupil  to  stoop  too  much,  inducing  round 
shoulders. 


carriage  and  bearing  of  people  about   us   more   readily    than 


we  do  their  other  characteristics, 
not  need  to  say  much  about  pos- 
ture to  his  pupils.  An  occasional 
suggestion  or  perhaps  a  gesture 
will  be  enough.  He  will  not  make 
all  his  pupils  as  well-poised  as  he 
is  himself,  but  he  will  start  them 
on  the  way  to  acquiring  good 
posture. 

This  subject  is  of  consequence 
not  simply  from  the  point  of 
view  of  conserving  energy,  but 
it  concerns  as  well  the  generating 
of  force.     A  pupil  leaning  over  his 


A  well-poised  teacher  will 


Fig.  44.  -  Chair  and  desk 
illustrating  proper  seating  of 
pupil. 


240 


MENTAL    DIA  KLOPMKNT   AND    KDUCATION 


(k-sk,  with  his  lungs  conslrictcd, 
is  in  a  good  condition  to  en- 
courage day-dreaming  and  nap- 
ping. In  such  circumstances, 
the  organism  is  apt  to  become 
clogged  since  it  does  not  receive 
its  due  allowance  of  oxygen,  as 
a  result  of  which  the  brain  will 
slow  down  in  its  action.  Who 
has  not  seen  a  room  full  of  seekers 
after  knowledge,  lying  down  on 
their  desks,  with  all  vital  proc- 
esses impeded,  and  their  minds 
in  a  kind  of  stupor?  People 
sometimes  put  themselves  to 
sleep   by   deliberately    assuming 

the  attitudes  which  school  seats  often  enforce  upon  pupils. 
When  one  reflects  upon  the  matter  he  can  hardly  fail  to  be 

impressed  with  the  remarkable  intricacy  of  the  motor  coordina- 
tions required  in  the  proper  control  of  the  eyes.     Dur- 
ing    waking     life     they 
are  well  nigh  incessantly 
changing  their  focus,  for 

one  thing,  so  as   to  bring  within 

range  of  vision  objects  located  in 

different  parts  of  the  visual  field. 

In  order   to  accomplish  this   they 

are  equipped  with  ocular  muscles 

so  adjusted  as  to  secure  movements 

in    all   directions    within    a   given 

orbit.     In  the  perfect  eye  these  muscles  are  exactly  balanced 


Fig.  45.  —  Illustrating  a  desk  too  high 
for  the  child,  causing  elevation  of  the 
right  shoulder  in  writing  and  a  corre- 
sponding curve  in  the  spinal  column. 


The  eye 
in  relation 
to  nervous 
waste 


Fig.  46.  —  Muscles  of  the  eyeball. 
a,  optic  nerve ;  b,  superior  oblique 
muscle;  c,  pulley;  d,  inferior  oblique 
muscle.  The  other  four  muscles  are 
the  recti  muscles. 


and  remain 
action 


at  :,„.,i  except  when  the  interests  of  vision  require 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION 


241 


But  it  happens  often  that  one  of  the  ocular  muscles  may  be 
more  energetic  than  its  fellows ;  or  through  some  error  in  the 
functioning  of  the  reflex  nervous  mechanism  it  may 

1  •  1  •        1        1  1    1  X  11  Maladjust- 

be  active  when  it  should  be  at  rest.     It  tends  then  ment  of 
to  pull  the  eye  out  of  focus,  which  would  make  one  ^^g^^g 
see  double  if  it  had  its  way  ;  but  the  nervous  system 
seeks  reflexly  to  avert  this  calamity  by  stimulating  a  muscle 
opposed  to  the  overacting  one  so  as  to  counterbalance  its  efforts. 


Fig.  47.  —  The  normal  eye.  The  eye- 
ball is  just  the  right  length  and  the  lens 
has  just  the  right  degree  of  curvature  so 
that  the  rays  of  light  are  focused  precisely 
upon  the  retina. 


Fbg.  48.  —  The  shortsighted  or  myopic 
eye.  The  eyeball  is  too  long  so  that 
the  rays  of  light  focus  in  front  of  the 
retina. 


Nature  strenuously  endeavors  to  correct  all  defects  of  this  char- 
acter. As  Prentice  says:^  "When  necessary,  the  nerve  centers 
enervate  to  their  utmost  power  the  various  eye  muscles,  causing 
a  change  in  the  crystaUine  lens,  stretching  muscles  which  were 
too  short  to  enable  the  eyes  to  look  in  the  same  direction." 
This  results  then  in  incessant  muscular  strain,  which  is  a  constant 
source  of  waste.  Gould  maintains ^  that  "the  tremendous  in- 
fluence of  eye-strain  upon  disposition,  character,  and  vocation 
was  borne  in  upon  me  the  first  year  I  was  in  practice.     Almost 


*  The  Eye  in  Relation  lo  Hcallli,  p.  10. 


-  Biographic  Clinics,  vol.  I,  p.  28. 


242 


MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


Maladjust 
ment  of 
the  lens 


every  (lay  since  then  the  truth  has  be- 
come more  striking  and  evident.  Chil- 
dren's lives  and  minds  are  unconsciously 
and  constantly  modified,  always  un- 
naturally and  morbidly,  because  of  the 
fact,  unconscious  to  them,  that  reading 
and  study  and  writing  irritate  and  dis- 
order the  central  nervous  system,  the  di- 
gestional  organs,  etc." 

Again,  in  the  normal  eye  the  lens  and 
eyeball  are  so  constructed  that  objects 
are  with  ease  focused  exactly 
upon  the  retina.  But  it 
happens  more  frequently  than 
not,  it  seems,  that  this  fine  adjustment 
is  not  secured.  The 
lens  has  not  the  right 
degree  of  curvature, 
as  a  whole,  or  in  a 
certain  angle,  or  the 
eyeball  is  either  too 
short  or  too  long, 
when  the  focus  falls 
in  front  of  or  behind 
the  retina,  or  is  not 

the  same  in  every  meridian.  The  various  de- 
fects of  the  eyeball  are  shown  in  the  accom- 
panying illustrations,  figures  48  to  60,  while 
the  normal  eye  is  shown  in  figure  47. 

In  a  more  or  less  reflex  way  the  individual 
tries  to  remedy  any  error  of  the  sort  shown 
in  the  illustrations  by  modifying  the  curvature 
of  the  lens  through  the  action  of  the  ciliary 


Fig.  4g.  —  The  longsighted 
or  hyperopic  eye.  The  eyeball 
is  too  short  and  the  rays  of 
light  focus  back  of  the  retina. 


Pig.  50. — The  double 
concave  lens.  Notice 
that  it  spreads  the  rays 
of  light  ;'nd  so  can  be 
used  to  correct  a  sh<irt 
sighted  defect,  as  shown 
in  the  following  illustra- 
tion. 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION 


243 


muscles.     Tii  a  defective  eye  this  strain  nuisl 

go  on  incessantly,  and  one  can  easily  imagine 

the  results  in  draining  the  organism  of  nerve 

force.     We  have  been  hearing  during  the  last 

few  years  that  the  defective  eye  is  the  source 

of  much  discomfort  and  disturbance ;  and 

even  if  its  importance  in  pathology  has  been 

somewhat   exaggerated    it    is    nevertheless 

universally  conceded  that  defective  vision 

entails  serious  consequences,  alike  in  block- 
ing one  important  approach  to  the  mind 
and  in  robbing  the 
system  of  energy. 
Swift,  in  the  American 
Physical  Education  Re- 
view, 1899,  gives  a 
number  of  examples  of  disturbances  in 
various  parts  of  the  body,  due  directly  to 
eye-strain. 

Gould,  in  his  interesting  study  of   the 
causes  of  the  ill-health  of  some  of  the  great 

men  and  women  of  history,  — 

Dr.  Gould 

Darwm,  Huxley,  the  two  Car-  on  the 
lyles,     Spencer,     Wagner,     and  ^^^^tsof 

J       '        t^  '  o        >  eye-strain 


Fig.  51.  — The  only  way 
to  correct  shortsighted- 
ness, —  using  a  concave 
lens  so  that  the  rays  of 
light  will  focus  exactly 
upon  the  retina. 


Fig.  52.  —  The  double 
convex  lens.  Notice  that 
it  converges  the  rays  of 
light,  and  can  be  used  to 
correct  longsightedness  as 
shown  in  the  following 
illustration. 


many  others,  —  maintains  that 
eye-strain  was  responsible  for  most  of  their 
maladies.  In  discussing  De  Quincey's  ill- 
health,  he  makes  a  statement  which  will  be 
in  place  here:  "  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  of 
unutilized  truths,"  he  says,  "long  known, 
strangely  ignored,  that  in  the  vast  major- 
ity of  cases  of  eye-strain  the  morbid  results 
of  the  astigmatism,  etc.,  are  not  felt  in  the 


244 


MENIAL    l)i:\  Kl.OPMKNT   AND    KDUC  A  TlOX 


eyes.  U  is  ptTl't'ctly  explainahlc  why  (his  is  so.  Phi"  \alue  of 
the  eye  so  overtops  that  of  almost  any  other  organ  that  the  reflex 
results  of  its  unphysiologic  functions  must  be  shunted  anywhere 
except  back  to  the  eye  itself.  In  women  it  goes  to  the  heafl ; 
the  world  is  full  of  those  tortured  nearly  every  day  of  their  lives 
with  headache  ('  bilious '  or  '  nervous '  headaches).  In  many,  and 
especially  with  men  working  much  with  the  eyes,  the  reflex  is 


Fig.  53.  —  The  only  way  to 
correct  longsightedness, —  using 
a  convex  lens,  so  as  to  focus  the 
rays  of  light  on  the  retina. 


Fig.  54.  —  The  astigmatic  dial.     A  perfect  eye 
will  sec  all  the  lines  equally  black  and  distinct.j 


to  the  digestional  organs,  with  'indigestion'  and  '  liver  derange- 
ments,' 'anorexia,'  etc.  The  truth  that  eye-strain  induces  these 
functional  gastric,  intestinal,  and  biliary  disorders  cannot  much 
longer  be  ignored."  ^ 

Eye  defects  seem  to  manifest  themselves  especially  during 
adolescence.  Many  boys  and  girls  realize  now  for  the  first  time 
that  they  have  eyes.  The  explanation  doubtless  is  that  the 
organism  is  devoting  its  strength  during  this  i)crio(l  mainly  to 

'  Biographic  Clinics,  vol.  T,  pi>.  34-35. 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION 


245 


the  building  of  heart,  lungs  and  bones,  and  there  is  not  enough 
left  to  expend  in  disciplining  refractory  eyes.  In  sickness  people 
become  conscious  of  eye-strain  that  they  have  not  noticed  before, 
and  of  which  they  are  never  really  aware  except  when  the  ener- 
gies of  the  organism  are  at  a  low  ebb.  Swift  observed  this  phe- 
nomenon frequently  in  his  study  of  vision  in  the  pupils  of  the 
normal  school  at  Stevens  Point,  Wisconsin.     "An  interesting 


Fig.  55.  —  Showing  astigmatism.  A  person  who 
has  astigmatism  is  likely  to  see  some  lines  more 
distinct  than  others.  In  this  case  the  distinct  lines 
are  VI  and  XII.  In  other  astigmatic  eyes  any  of 
the  other  lines  may  be  more  distinct. 


Fig.  56.  —  A  shortsighted  astig- 
matic eye.  The  rays  of  light  are 
focused  at  diiTerent  distances  in 
front  of  the  retina.  This  means 
that  the  individual  sees  more  clearly 
in  some  meridians  than  in  others, 
though  vision  is  blurred  in  all 
meridians. 


fact,"  he  says,  "though  by  no  means  a  new  one,  was  repeatedly 
observed.  Young  boys  and  girls,  with  more  defect  than  some 
older  ones,  had  never  experienced  any  trouble  with  their  eyes, 
while  the  older  ones,  with  much  less  defect,  were  constantly 
annoyed  with  eye  ache,  or  the  blurring  of  the  letters.  The  differ- 
ence was  that  the  vigorous  nervous  system  of  the  young  boys 
and  girls  was  able  to  sustain  the  irritation  of  the  poorly  con- 
structed eye,  and  by  an  oversupply  of  nerve  force,  could  compel 


240 


MENIAL    DKXKLOPMKNT   AND    EDUCATION 


Fig.  57.  —  Another  type 
of  the  shortsighted  astig- 
matic eye.     Note  that  the 


the  eye  to  do  its  work  without  apparent  injury,  while  the  more 
exhausted  nerve  centers  of  the  young  men  and  women  could  not 
stand  the  constant  call  for  more  energy." 
The  only  way  the  defects  of  sight  which 
have  been  mentioned  can  be  corrected  is  by 
the  use  of  glasses.  If  one  is  shortsighted 
the  optician  will  grind  a  glass  so  that  it  will 
bend  the  rays  of  light  before  they  enter  the 
eye  just  enough  so  that  when  they  pass 
through  the  lens  they  will  be  focused  upon 
the  retina  and  so  will  give  normal  vision. 

If  one  is  longsighted  the  glass  must  be 
ground  so  as  to  bend  the  rays  of  light  in 
rays  in  one  meridian  focus   the  Opposite  direction  from  what  is  required 

exactly    upon    the    retina,     .  ,  .    ,         ,  x 

and  in  another  meridian    m    shortsightedncss.     In    astigmatism    the 
in  front  of  the  retina,  ^^As^  ^^^^  1^^  ground  difTerently  in  different 

meridians,   according   to    the   particular   type   of    defect. 

People  often  act  as  though  they  thought  that  if  they  let 
a  child  with  eye  defects  alone  he  will  out- 
grow them  in  time,  but  this  is  rarely  the 
case.  The  opposite  is  more  likely  to  be 
true.  The  use  of  a  defective  eye  is  apt 
to  increase  the  defect  through  unnatural 
strain ;  and  defect  in  vision  always  causes 
eye-strain. 

It  hardly  need  be  added,  perhaps,  that 
no  one  but  a  well-trained  specialist  is 
capable  of  prescribing  glasses.  For  one  to 
wear  glasses  suggested  by  a  quack  may  lead 
to  the  destruction  of  the  eyes.  Fic.    sS.  —  The   long- 

In  progressive  schools  to-,h>y  regular  c-x-    ^^ .^TS^r.;^:, 
amination  is  made  of  children's  teeth.     It     i'«h'  are  focused  at  dif- 

liTfiit    points    iK'liind    the 

is  not  taken  for  granted  that  parents  will     niina 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION 


247 


look  after  this  matter  properly.     Records  have  been  kept  in  a 
number  of  cities,  and  it  has  been  found  that  as  high  as  twenty 
per  cent  of  the  children  in  the  , 

!  *^  Importance 

;•;  first  grade  suffer  to  a  greater  or  of  the 

lesser    extent    from     dectiying  JeUtionto 

conservation 
of  energy 


teeth. 


Fig.  5g.  — ■  In  this  astig- 
matic eye  the  rays  in  one 
meridian  focus  exactly  on 
the  retina  and  in  another 
meridian  behind  it. 


In  the  higher  grades 
some  medical  examiners  have 
reported  that  from  thirty-five  to  forty-live 
per  cent  of  the  children  either  have  decay- 
ing teeth  or  have  some  serious  deformity 
due  to  the  improper  development  of  the 
teeth. 

Neglected  carioiis  teeth  are  almost  cer- 
tain to  interfere  with  health  and  with  good 
mental  activity.  Such  teeth  are  always 
the  cause  of  more  or  less  acute  pain.  A 
child  suffering  from  even  a  ''dull"  tooth- 
ache   cannot    concentrate    upon    his    intellectual    tasks.     Since 

teachers  and  medical  examiners  began  to  give 

attention  to  this  matter  a  large  number  of 

cases  have  been  reported  of  children  who 

appeared  indifferent  in  the  schoolroom,  who 

made  mistakes  frequently,  who  often  did  not 

hear  commands  which  were  given,  who  could 

not  even  copy  work  from  the  board  correctly, 

and  the  cause  was  found  to  be  mainly  decay- 
ing teeth.     There  are  on  record  numerous 

instances  of  dull  and  inattentive  pupils  who 

showed    marked    improvement    when   their 

teeth  were  put  in  order. 
A  more  serious  fact  still  is  that  neglected    ^^^'V^^^Z. 

decaying  teeth  are  practically  certain  to  be-     focus  in  front  of  the  retina 

^ .  .  '  ,  and  in  another  meridian 

come  breedmg  places  for  germs.    1  he  poisons    inhimi  ii . 


248  MENTAL   DJ:\KLOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

developed  by  these  germs  are  likely  to  be  absorbed  into  the 
blood  and  to  become  the  cause  of  disturbance  in  some  part 
of  the  body.  Many  school  children  are  in  a  toxic  or  poisoned 
condition  all  the  time,  partly  because  of  the  toxins  developed 
in  diseased  teeth.  Physicians  have  quite  generally  come  to 
realize  that  infected  tonsils  may  be  the  source  of  disease  through 
the  absorption  of  the  poisons  which  are  thus  developed,  but  it 
is  probable  that  more  children  are  poisoned  by  carious  teeth 
than  by  diseased  tonsils,  serious  as  the  latter  may  be. 

Further,  neglected  decaying  teeth  generally  interfere  with 
the  mastication  of  food,  so  that  it  is  often  swallowed  without 
being  chewed.  Children  have  always  a  tendency  to  bolt  their 
food  and  this  tendency  is  aggravated  when  the  teeth  are  slough- 
ing away.  The  proper  action  of  the  digestive  system  requires 
that  one  should  chew  hard  food  of  some  kind  at  every  meal, 
preferably  hard-baked  bread  or  biscuits ;  but  this  may  not  be 
possible  when  the  teeth  are  not  sound  and  strong. 

When  all  these  conditions  are  operating  in  any  one  case,  as 
they  sometimes  do ;  that  is  to  say,  when  the  child's  teeth  are 
aching,  when  they  are  developing  toxins  which  are  absorbed 
into  the  system,  and  when  they  cannot  be  used  to  masticate 
hard  food,  then  the  situation  for  the  victim  is  always  serious. 
No  child  of  any  age  can  meet  the  requirements  of  present-day 
life  in  school  or  outside  when  he  is  handicapped  to  this  extent. 
He  will  be  distracted  in  the  school ;  he  will  not  have  energy  to 
do  his  work  properly ;  he  will  be  among  the  first  to  take  any  dis- 
ease that  is  going,  because  his  resistance  will  be  lowered.  These 
statements  are  warranted  by  the  results  of  investigations  which 
have  been  carried  on  during  the  past  few  years  in  many  of  the 
cities  of  this  country. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  nature  has  not  equipped  the  child  with 
an  instinct  to  care  for  his  teeth  as  he  should  do,  so  that  they  will 
resist  decay.     When  nature  gave  man  his  teeth  she  expected 


OVERSTRAIN   IN  EDUCM  ION  249 

UuiL  he  would  use  ihem  in  ciusliing  hard,  raw  food,  and  so  he 
would  of  necessity  keep  them  in  good  condition  all  the  time. 
Unhappily,  in  present-day  life  the  young,  and  the  old  also  for 
that  matter,  eat  mainly  soft,  mushy,  semi-liquid  foods,  and  so 
the  teeth  are  not  used  in  a  way  to  keep  them  in  health  and  vigor. 
For  this  reason  they  ought  to  be  massaged  every  day.  Nothing 
but  vigorous  treatment  will  keep  vitality  in  the  teeth  of  children 
who  are  reared  on  soft  foods.  This  is  being  appreciated  by 
observing  teachers,  and  in  some  places  they  have  a  special  period 
which  is  devoted  to  what  is  called  "The  Toothbrush  Drill." 
Children  march  in  groups  to  running  water  and  there  use  their 
toothbrushes  in  an  effective  way.  There  are  objections  to  this 
on  aesthetic  grounds,  and  unless  care  be  taken  there  might  be  ob- 
jections on  hygienic  grounds  ;  but  for  many  children  in  the  public 
schools  to-day  the  exercise  is  a  beneficial  one  so  far  as  the  teeth 
are  concerned.  With  proper  care  of  the  brush,  or  whatever 
scrubbing  and  massaging  device  is  used,  there  will  be  no  danger 
of  contagion ;  and  considering  the  tremendous  advantages  to 
be  derived  from  this  competitive  drill,  teachers  can  probably 
endure  the  offense  to  their  aesthetic  sensibilities. 

It  is  recognized  in  mechanics  that  a  large  part  of  the  energy 
expended  in  the  operation  of  a  machine  is  lost  on  account  of 
friction;  a  relatively  small  amount  even  in  the  best   .    .,. 

,  .  .      .  Avoiding 

machines  is  used  in  accomplishing  the  purposes  for  needless 
which  the  machine  is  operated.  The  more  perfectly 
a  machine  can  be  constructed  so  as  to  avoid  loss  of  energy  the 
more  efficient  the  machine  is,  of  course.  Viewed  from  one 
standpoint,  the  human  body  is  a  machine ;  it  has  work  to  do 
and  it  has  a  certain  quota  of  energy  which  may  be  utilized  for 
this  purpose.  Some  persons  seem  to  hold  that  the  human  or- 
ganism has  been  so  carefully  fashioned  that  there  can  be  no  loss 
of  vital  force,  that  all  parts  fit  together  so  smoothly  and  coor- 
dinate so  nicely  that  there  is  no  leakage  anywhere.     It  would 


250  MENTAL   DEXELOPMENT  AND    EDUCATION 

!)(.'  a  fortunate  arrangcnunt  it  this  most  intricate  of  all  mecha- 
nisms could  automatically  run  without  waste  of  energy.  It  is 
probable,  however,  that  with  the  majority  of  persons,  on  account 
of  wasteful  habits  contracted  in  one  way  or  another,  there  is 
loss  of  force  by  friction,  which  can  be  reduced,  at  least,  by  intel- 
lij^ent  planning. 

The  statement  made  by  William  James  that  most  people  use 
only  a  small  part  of  their  available  energy  has  special  sig- 
nificance in  this  connection.  Before  the  World  War  broke 
out,  several  German  books  appeared  which  ascribed  the  in- 
crease of  suicides  and  nervous  derangements  among  school 
children  in  that  country  to  overstrain  from  excessive  school 
work.  Offner's  book  on  mental  fatigue  summarizes  a  vast  amount 
of  investigation  in  many  countries,  and  in  the  entire  book  there 
is  not  one  intimation  to  the  effect  that  educational  systems  are 
not  requiring  excessive  work  of  their  pupils ;  but  it  is  probable 
that  it  is  excessive  waste  rather  than  excessive  it'ork  which  is 
the  cause  of  overstrain  in  the  school. 

One  of  the  most  important  sources  of  waste  of  energy  is  found 
in  muscular  tensions  which  are  not  at  all  essential  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  work  in  hand.     When  any  task,  such 

Loss  in  the  .  .  .  ,  ,  ,  1,111 

human  as  writmg,  IS  to  be  undertaken  no  muscles  should  be 

™om"°^  active  except  those  which  are  necessary  to  the  execu- 
muscuiar  tion  of  the  task,  or  that  furnish  an  outlet  for  surplus 
energy.  Take  this  case,  a  common  one  :  an  adult  sets 
out  to  write  a  letter ;  he  seizes  his  pen  in  his  right  hand,  and 
soon  the  left  hand  becomes  clenched,  the  lips  compressed,  deep 
furrows  appear  between  the  eyes,  and  the  fingers  grasp  the  pen 
with  undue  force.  In  such  a  case  a  considerable  amount  of  en- 
ergy is  being  expended  without  profit ;  the  unnecessary  tensions 
are  draining  the  organism  of  force  that  should  be  conserved. 

There  are  practices  in  school  life,  as  in  the  life  outside, 
which  result  in  scjuandering  energy,  as  we  have  seen,  and  which 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  251 

can  probably  be  corrected  without  inducing  too  great  self-con- 
sciousness.    In   the  first  place,   mental   tension  readily  begets 
muscular  tension.     When  one  is  troubled  in  spirit ;  Mental 
when  he  discerns  obstacles  ahead  that  seem  insuper-  tension 

begets 

able ;  when  conscience  is  mcessantly  active,  censurmg  muscular 
one  for  past  deeds,  exhorting  him  to  be  especially  careful  ^"^'°° 
in  the  future ;  when  life  seems  full  of  cares  that  demand  unceasing 
attention,  —  such  a  state  of  mind  produces  tensions  which  sap 
the  organism  of  its  vitalities.  Life  abounds  with  illustrations 
of  this  principle.  The  cringing  of  any  animal  in  terror  ;  the  dis- 
tension of  the  nostrils,  clenching  of  fists,  trembhng  of  the  whole 
frame  in  anger ;  the  dynamic  attitude  of  the  speaker  whose 
subject  possesses  him,  —  all  are  common  examples  of  muscular 
tension  produced  by  mental  or  emotional  tension.  An  old  foot- 
ball player  testifies  that  he  cannot  put  on  his  "togs"  without 
experiencing  muscular  tension  to  the  point  of  marked  unsteadi- 
ness of  the  hand. 

Persons  with  rigid  countenances  and  tense  muscles  may  fre- 
quently be  seen  on  the  street,  in  the  home,  or  in  the  schoolroom. 
When  one  talks  with  such  persons  he  can  observe  "nerve  signs," 
that  is,  signs  of  overstrain,  in  all  the  sensitive  muscles  of  face 
and  hands.  These  are  the  persons  who  are  continually  drawing 
too  heavily  upon  their  nerve  accounts.  Their  outlay  often  ex- 
ceeds their  income ;  and  there  may  never  be  any  large  balance 
on  the  credit  side  of  the  account.  Dr.  Clouston,  the  eminent 
Scotch  neurologist,  visited  our  country  a  few  years  ago  and  is 
reported  by  William  James  to  have  said :  ^  "You  Americans 
wear  too  much  expression  upon  your  faces.  You  are  living  like 
an  army  with  all  its  reserves  engaged  in  action.  The  duller 
countenances  of  the  British  population  betoken  a  better  scheme 
of  life.  They  suggest  stores  of  reserved  nervous  force  to  fall 
back  upon,  if  any  occasion  should  arise  that  requires  it.  This 
'  Talks  to  Teachers,  etc.,  chapter  on  "  The  Gospel  of  Relaxation.'' 


252  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

excitability,  this  presence  at  all  times  of  power  not  used,  1  re- 
gard as  the  greatest  safeguard  of  our  English  people.  The 
other  thing  in  you  gives  me  a  sense  of  insecurity,  and  you 
ought  somehow  to  tone  yourselves  down.  You  really  do  carry 
too  much  expression,  you  take  too  intensely  the  trivial  moments 
of  life." 

It  is  a  \ntally  important  matter  in  every  one's  life,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  early  years  when  habits  of  economy  or  prodi- 
gaUty  are  being  estabhshed,  to  get  into  the  way  of  adjusting 
effort  to  the  task  to  be  accomplished.     Manifestly  the  first  req- 
uisite is  to  adopt  sane  mental    attitudes  toward  life  and  one's 
work.     One  who  is  constantly  apprehensive   and  self-condem- 
natory pursues  a  good  course  to  dissipate  his  forces,  for  he  cannot 
be  looking  inward  all  the  time,  reviewing  his  limitations  and 
errors,  without  inducing  strain  and  stress  of  mind  and  body. 
As  James  has  said,  the  "melanchoHc  patient  is  filled  through 
and  through  with  painful  emotions  about  himself.     He  is  threat- 
ened ;  he  is  guilty  ;  he  is  doomed  ;    he  is  annihilated  ;  he  is  lost. 
His  mind  is  fixed  as  if  in  a  cramp  on  this  sense  of  his  own  situa- 
tion."    And  unfortunately,  the  more  one  thinks  of  his  failings 
the  more  securely  do  they  tend  to  fasten  themselves  upon  him. 
Let  one  review  the  occasions  on  which  a  lapse  of  memory  has 
embarrassed  him,  whether  it  be  forgetting  a  name  when  in  a 
gathering,  a  part  prepared  for  a  public  exercise,  or  something 
that  "would  not  come"  till  after  the  examination,  and  he  will 
find  that  almost  always  the  thought  of  the  possibiHty  of  forget- 
ting came  first.     One  can  rise  above  his  limitations  mainly  by 
filling  his  mind  with  ideals  outside  of  himself  so  that  he  may 
grow  up  toward  them.     This  is  the  only  way,  too,  in  which 
the  machinery  of  life  can  be  adjusted  to  run  without  needless 
friction. 

Professor  James'  advice  to  those  who  are  continually  in  a 
self-condemnatory  or  fearful  frame  of  mind  may  be  repeated  here  : 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  253 

"If  we  wish  our  trains  of  idcalion  and  volition  to  be  copious  and 
varied  and  effective,"  he  says,  "we  must  form  the  habit  of  free- 
ing them  from  the  inhibitive  influence  of  egoistic  pre-    ^ 

°  ^  .         .         James  on 

occupation  about  their  results.  Such  a  habit,  like  "  unciamp- 
other  habits,  can  be  formed.  Prudence  and  duty  ^^^ 
and  self-guard,  emotions  of  inhibition  and  emotions  of  anxiety 
have,  of  course,  a  needful  part  to  play  in  our  lives.  But  con- 
fine them  as  far  as  possible  to  the  occasions  when  you  are  making 
your  general  resolutions  and  deciding  on  your  plans  of  campaign, 
and  keep  them  out  of  the  details.  When  once  a  decision  is 
reached  and  execution  is  the  order  of  the  day,  dismiss  absolutely 
all  responsibility  and  care  about  the  outcome.  Unclamp,  in 
a  word,  your  intellectual  and  practical  machinery  and  let  it  run 
free,  and  the  service  it  will  do  you  will  be  twice  as  good.  Who 
are  the  scholars  who  get  '  rattled '  in  the  recitation  room  ?  Those 
who  think  of  the  possibilities  of  failure  and  feel  the  great  im- 
portance of  the  act.  Who  are  those  who  recite  well  ?  Often 
those  who  are  most  indifferent.  Their  ideas  reel  themselves 
out  of  their  memory  of  their  own  accord.  Why  do  we  hear  the 
complaint  so  often  that  social  life  in  New  England  is  either  less 
rich  and  expressive  or  more  fatiguing  than  it  is  in  some  other 
parts  of  the  world  ?  To  what  is  the  fact,  if  fact  it  be,  due,  unless 
to  the  overactive  conscience  of  the  people,  afraid  of  their  saying 
something  too  trivial  and  obvious,  or  something  insincere,  or 
something  unworthy  of  one's  interlocutor,  or  something  in  some 
way  or  other  not  adequate  to  the  occasion  ?  How  can  conversa- 
tion possibly  steer  itself  through  such  a  sea  of  responsibilities 
and  inhibitions  as  this?  On  the  other  hand,  conversation  does 
flourish  and  society  is  refreshing,  and  neither  dull,  on  the  one 
hand,  nor  exhausting  from  its  efforts  on  the  other,  wherever 
people  forget  their  scruples  and  take  the  brakes  off  their  hearts 
and  let  their  tongues  wag  as  automatically  and  irresponsibly 
as  they  will." 


254  MKNTAI.    nEVKIOPMKXr   AND    KDUCATION 

Wliilc  ccoiioniiial  hudil)'  alliliulcs  aiul  aclixitics  arc  gciicrally 

insured  by  mental  poise,  still  something  may  be  accomplished 

on  the  motor  side  by  deliberately  striving  to  relax 

The  reflex  •  n  i     .  i       •  •  r 

effect  of         occasionally.     Let  one  who  is  conscious  oi  unnecessary 
bodily  tenseness  in  his  muscles  voluntarily  '' let  go"  at  certain 

attitudes  ,  .... 

times  of  the  day  as  a  matter  of  discipline.     This  will 
assist  in  relieving  his  nervous  system  ;  and  in  time  he  may  find 


Fig.  6i.  —  Postures  ofttn  determine  mental  states,  and  vice  versa.     (See  exercise  26, 

page  381.) 

himself  relaxing  unconsciously,  which  is  an  imperative  need  for 
the  majority  of  American  people. 

Just  as  ideas  and  feelings  find  their  way  into  motor  actions, 
so  motor  attitudes  influence  the  current  of  one's  thought  and 
feeling.  Deliberately  assume  any  given  motor  attitude  and  it 
will  tend  to  awaken  the  emotion  which  usually  initiates  this 
attitude.  Assume  the  outward  manifestation  of  fear  and  fear 
will  be  easily  engendered ;  while  if  one  stands  bravely  against 
the    world,    courage   will   be    strengthened.     In   the    words    of 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  255 

Ribot :  ' ''  It  is  less  generally  known  that  movements  and  attitudes 
of  the  body,  artificially  produced,  are  capable  (in  some  cases,  and 
to  a  slight  degree)  of  exciting  the  corresponding  emotions.  Re- 
main for  some  time  in  an  attitude  of  sadness,  and  vou  will  feel 


Fig.  62.  —  Seating  can  be  arranged  so  as  to  secure  an  erect  posture.     (See  exercise  58, 

page  386.) 

sad.  By  mingling  in  cheerful  society  and  regulating  your  outward 
behavior  in  accordance  with  it,  you  may  awaken  in  yourself  a 
transient  gayety.  If  the  arm  of  a  hypnotized  subject  is  placed, 
with  clenched  fist,  in  a  threatening  attitude,  the  corresponding 
impression  spontaneously  appears  in  the  face  and  in  the  rest  of 

'  The  Psychology  of  the  Emotions,  j).  392. 


256  MEMAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

the  body;  tlir  same  holds  good  for  the  expression  of  love, 
prayer,  contempt,  etc.  Here  the  movement  is  the  cause  and  the 
emotion  the  effect.  The  two  cases  are  reducible  to  a  single 
formula.  There  is  an  indissoluble  association  between  a  given 
movement  and  a  given  feeling." 

It  seems  to  be  a  principle  of  our  human  nature  that  what  we 
like  to  do,  speaking  generally,  produces  less  strain  and  stress  than 
Play  as  a  the  things  we  dislike.  Disagreeable  tasks  lie  along 
restorative  ^Y^^,  Juries  q{  greatest  resistance  for  the  organism,  so  a 
relatively  large  amount  of  energy  must  be  expended  in  overcom- 
ing them  ;  while  on  the  other  hand,  what  is  agreeable  runs  along 
ways  of  easy  progress,  and  makes  comparatively  little  demand 
upon  our  powers.  Bearing  upon  this  matter,  Galton  has  said :  ^ 
"We  must  be  on  our  guard  against  estimating  a  man's  energy 
too  strictly  by  the  work  he  accompUshes,  because  it  makes  a  great 
difference  whether  he  loves  his  work  or  not.  A  man  with  no 
interest  is  rapidly  fagged.  Prisoners  are  well  nourished  and 
cared  for,  but  they  cannot  perform  the  task  of  an  ill-fed  and  ill- 
housed  laborer.  Whenever  they  are  forced  to  do  more  than 
their  usual  small  amount,  they  show  all  the  symptoms  of  being 
overtasked  and  sicken.  An  army  in  retreat  suffers  in  every 
way,  while  one  in  the  advance,  being  full  of  hope,  may  perform 
prodigious  feats." 

This  doctrine  is  of  vital  consequence  as  it  affects  programs 
for  relaxation  in  and  out  of  school.  Games,  plays  and  gymnas- 
tics which  one  enjoys  will  accomplish  the  purpose  of  recreation 
better  than  those  in  which  one  has  no  interest.  So  far  as  possible 
the  will  should  be  released  in  recreation.  This  is  accomplished 
more  largely  in  play  than  in  mere  drill,  as  in  marching  or  anything 
of  the  kind.  Things  which  we  dislike  we  must  exert  ourselves 
to' overcome,  but  it  is  different  with  those  activities  which  draw 
us  spontaneously.  Observe  a  boy  at  play  and  at  work.  The 
'  English  Men  of  Science,  Their  Nature  and  Nurture,  p.  75. 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  257 

play  may  really  be  harder,  in  the  sense  that  more  gross  energy 
is  expended  and  more  difficult  movements  are  performed,  but  yet 
he  is  really  less  fatigued  over  the  heavier  than  the  lighter  task. 

Relaxation  is  the  important  thing  in  recreation,  viewed  alike 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  conservation  of  power  and  recovery 
from  fatigue.  Claparede  believes  that  the  only  real  way  to 
rest  is  to  do  nothing,  —  to  rest.  OfTner  also  takes  the  ground  that 
the  short  hourly  pauses  of  fifteen  to  twenty  minutes  during  the 
day  at  school  are  really  of  benefit  only  if  they  are  spent  in  re- 
laxation, taking  nourishment,  or  in  the  fresh  air,  not  in  gymnas- 
tics or  violent  exercise.  Pupils  and  brain  workers  of  every  kind 
will  probably  be  benefited  more  by  exercises  requiring  the  greater 
use  of  the  fundamental  than  of  the  peripheral  muscles.  Gymnas- 
tics and  games,  then,  should  not  require  too  exact  ^nd  difficult 
coordinations,  since  it  would  seem  that  the  school  really  demands 
enough  of  this  sort  of  thing  in  the  prosecution  of  the  regular 
studies.  It  is  also  desirable  that  a  pupil's  amusements  should 
engage  the  muscles  principally  rather  than  the  mind.  Cards, 
checkers,  chess,  and  the  like  are  poorly  suited  to  the  needs  of 
those  who  use  their  brains  constantly  in  their  regular  employ- 
ments. A  pupil's  life  economically  planned  would  be  so  ordered 
that  he  would  expend  in  study  all  the  energies  which  should  be 
devoted  to  intellectual  activities,  while  recreation  would  involve 
motor  processes  almost  wholly. 

A  teacher  in  a  Western  city  inquires  whether  quiet  games 
such    as  checkers,  backgammon,  authors,  chess,  and    the  like 
do  not  make  a  good  substitute  for  boisterous  games       . 
out-of-doors.     She  says:  "There  is  a  movement  in  indoor 
our  city  to  provide  rooms  for  these  quiet  games  in  bo™*erJus 
some  of  the  churches,  in  the  schools,  and  in  the  library,   games  for 

relaxation 

A  small  room  can  accommodate  quite  a  good  many  chil- 
dren, and  an  arrangement  like  this  would  provide  for  the  recrea- 
tion of  children  without  so  much  expense.     The  people  of  this 


-'5^ 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


city  do  not  seem  to  favor  the  plan  of  having  large  out-door  spaces 
for  games.  Will  not  the  quiet  games  teach  children  to  be  self- 
controlled  and  at  the  same  time  furnish  the  relaxation  which 
they  need,  as  well  as  the  boisterous  games?" 

Any  adult  who  thinks  that  checkers  or  authors  or  any  game  of 
the  kind  will  afford  relaxation  equal  to  out-door  games  might 
make    an    experiment   of  playing  chess   or  checkers  or    whist 


P"iG.  63.  —The  Fairhope  method  of  inducing  childn  n  ti>  relax 


■MTLi-e  6t.  l),-ige  .jbS.I 


for  an  hour  one  day  and  note  the  effect  upon  muscles,  nerves, 
and  mind.  Then  the  next  day  spend  an  hour  out-of-doors  play- 
ing tennis  or  golf  or  any  ball  game,  or  if  this  is  not  practicable* 
walking  for  an  hour,  and  then  compare  the  effects  with  those 
derived  from  chess  or  checkers  or  cards  of  any  kind.  There 
may  be  an  occasional  person  who  will  say  that  the  quiet  games 
furnish  as  good  recreation  as  the  out-of-door  games  which  use 
the  large  muscles,  but  where  there  is  one  such  person  there  will 
probably  be  a  hundred  others  who  will  declare  that  the  "boister- 
ous" games  are  more  relaxing,  refreshing,  and  upbuilding. 


0\'KRSTRAIN   IN    EDUCATION  259 

What  does  relaxation  require?     When  nerves  and  muscles  be- 
come tense,  nature  urges  one  to  release  them.    If  they  remain  tense 
too  long  they  will  dissipate  energy  and  lead  to  nervous  ^j^^  jae&n- 
exliaustion.     Any  experience  which   will  restore  ease  ing  and 

1  •       •        ^  ^  1  require- 

and  equipoise  to  a  tense  nervous  or  muscular  system  ments  of 
will  afford  relaxation.  Now,  most  of  the  tensions  '■^'"atioii 
of  modern  hfe,  whether  in  the  schoolroom  or  outside,  arise  from 
mental  strain  and  stress.  A  child  who  studies  arithmetic  for 
thirty  minutes,  for  example,  is  apt  to  develop  tensions  which  can 
often  be  observed  in  the  expression  of  the  features  and  in  the 
constraint  of  the  body.  It  is  probable  that  all  mental  effort 
results  in  some  tension.  Some  teachers  appreciate  this,  and  they 
do  not  require  pupils  to  apply  themselves  to  any  study  but  for 
a  short  period  at  a  time.  In  good  schools  pupils  have  exercises 
at  frequent  intervals  which  change  the  set  of  nerves  and  muscles, 
and  so  are  relaxing.  No  teacher  who  understands  the  require- 
ments for  relaxation  would  expect  that  after  a  child  had  studied 
algebra  for  a  considerable  period  he  could  find  relaxation 
best  in  playing  checkers.  The  competitive  element  in  the  game 
would  arouse  his  interest,  but  his  application  would  increase  the 
tensions  developed  by  the  preceding  study. 

Children  in  modern  city  life  are  made  tense  not  only  by  the 
work  in  the  school,  but  wherever  they  go  they  are  likely  to  be 
overstimulated.  There  is  so  much  life  and  movement  and  com- 
plexity in  our  modern  cities  that  a  child  is  hardly  ever  free  from 
tensions.  He  cannot  go  along  a  street  without  being  on  the 
alert  all  the  time.  Every  succeeding  year  brings  increased 
alertness  in  order  to  protect  oneself.  Life  in  the  city  does  not 
require  much  use  of  the  fundamental  muscles ;  the  senses  and 
the  brain  are  principally  employed  in  adjustment  to  urban  situ- 
ations. The  pace  in  the  school  is  becoming  constantly  faster 
because  there  is  more  to  learn  and  more  to  do  each  succeeding 
year.     This  all  means  increased  tension.     It  also  suggests  that  in 


26o 


MENTAL   DK\ELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 


order  to  keep  balance  and  harmony  and  to  avoid  fatigue  and 
breakdown  there  must  be  periods  of  boisterous  play.  There 
must  be  running,  yelling,  climbing  trees  and  ladders,  jumping, 
wrestling,  playing  tag  games,  and  all  chase  and  catch  games; 
also  swimming,  skating,  coasting,  snowballing,  and  so  on. 
It  is  particularly  desirable  that  all  children  should  have  op- 


FlG.   64. 


-There  should  be  one  room  in  ever>'  large  school  building  equipped  with  facilities 
suitable  for  relaxation.     (See  exercise  64,  page  388.) 


portunity  for  throwing  stones,  snowballs  and  the  like.  Every 
normal  child  has  a  passion  to  throw ;  and  this  is  one  source  of 
trouble  in  city  life,  and  is  the  cause  of  many  domestic  conflicts. 
The  child's  remote  ancestors  survived  partly  because  they  could 
send  missiles  through  space  upon  distant  objects,  —  their  enemies 
or  their  prey.  We  have  got  past  the  necessity  for  this  in  modern 
life  for  protection  against  enemies  or  for  the  securing  of  food, 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  261 

but  the  old  racial  practice  tends  to  be  repeated  in  our  children. 
When  children  are  keyed  up  as  a  result  of  stress  and  strain  in 
the  school  or  outside,  they  will  usually  be  relieved  if  they  can 
go  out-of-doors  and  engage  in  a  throwing  contest,  either  in  throw- 
ing at  a  mark  or  at  one  another  in  competitive  games,  or  in  throw- 
ing a  baseball  or  a  volley  ball.  Driving  a  golf  ball  appeals  to 
this  fundamental  interest,  but  it  is  more  complicated  and  so  less 
recreative,  for  most  people  at  any  rate. 

So  quiet  games  should  not  be  made  a  substitute  for  the  out- 
door, muscular  games  mentioned  above.  Does  this  mean  that 
the  quiet  games  are  of  no  value?  It  does  not.  Under  some 
conditions,  as  when  young  people  have  had  two  or  three  hours 
of  the  outdoor,  boisterous  games,  the  quiet,  intellectual  games 
would  be  appropriate  and  might  be  of  value.  Some  parents 
train  their  children  early  to  play  whist  and  similar  card  games. 
Any  child  who  devotes  much  time  to  this  sort  of  game  will  be 
handicapped.  If  he  is  doing  vigorous  intellectual  work  in  the 
school  or  in  the  home  he  will  not  find  the  whist  relaxing. 

There  are  indoor  games,  of  course,  which  require  the  use  of 
the  large  muscles  and  which  are  genuinely  relaxing.  All  the 
ball  games,  especially  with  large  balls,  meet  the  requirements 
for  relaxation,  unless  they  are  played  in  too  intense  a  way.  Some- 
times young  people  play  basket  ball,  for  instance,  vigorously 
and  become  so  excited  in  the  competitive  struggle  that  it  does 
not  furnish  relaxation  for  them.  But  when  the  excitement 
is  not  too  intense  it  is  an  admirable  game,  vastly  better  for  brain 
workers  of  any  age,  and  for  people  who  live  in  a  city  whether  they 
are  brain  workers  or  not,  than  games  like  whist  or  chess.  Bowl- 
ing employs  fundamental  muscles  and  relieves  a  tense  brain, 
but  it  does  not  make  so  strong  an  appeal  to  most  persons  as  a 
team  game  like  basket  ball  does.  There  is  probably  no  better 
exercise  for  relaxation  than  swimming,  and  fortunately  swimming 
pools  are  now  being  put  into  school  buildings  and  occasionally 


262  MENTAL   DE\ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

into  churches.     A  half-hour  of  swimming  will  afford  better  relax- 
ation for  a  school  child  than  a  whole  day  of  games  like  checkers. 

Modern  biological  psychology  conceives  of  a  human  being 

as  most  delicately  responsive,  alike  in  a  mental  and  in  an  organic 

way,  to  every   aspect  of  his  environment.     All  his 

All  experi-  .  r^  ^  •        c        ^  c 

ence  affects  experiences  affect  him  for  better  or  for  worse ;  every 
°oodoriii  force  that  plays  upon  him  probably  heightens  the 
tide  of  life  or  depresses  it.  Pleasure  and  pain  fur- 
nish the  data  by  means  of  which  one  distinguishes  between  the 
beneficial  and  the  detrimental  forces  acting  upon  him.  Those 
that  yield  pleasure  are  on  the  whole  salutary ;  those  that  yield 
pain  are  on  the  whole  harmful ;  and  for  prosperity  it  is  essential 
that  one's  pleasures  should  be  kept  more  abundant  than  his 
pains.  Pleasure  results  from  a  condition  of  congruity,  and  pain 
of  incongruity,  between  the  organism  and  its  environment. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

OVERSTRAIN  IN    EDUCATION:    CONDITIONS  AFFECTING 
ENDURANCE 

If  an  untrained  runner  starts  off  at  full  speed  he  will  in  a  short 
time  become  "winded."     He  will  slow  down  and  he  Handicaps 
may  come  almost  to  a  stop.     But  if  he  keeps  trying,  to  endur- 
he  may  gradually  pick  up  again  and  he  may  regain 
something  of  his  original  speed.     This  is  known  as  the  "second 
wind." 

The  energy  which  is  expended  when  a  muscle  is  at  work  is 
derived  from  the  combustion  of  food  in  the  body.  The  residue 
or  ash  resulting  from  this  combustion  is  in  effect  a  sort  of  poison 
in  the  system.  If  this  worn-out  tissue  accumulates  in  a  muscle 
it  will  interfere  with  its  action.  That  is,  the  muscle  will  become 
fatigued  ;  and  it  cannot  resume  its  normal  action  until  this  toxic 
or  waste  material  is  removed. 

The  lethargy  of  aged  persons  is  due  in  considerable  measure 
to  the  heaping  up  in  the  system  of  these  toxic  materials.  Nature 
provides  organs  for  the  neutralization  and  eUmination  of  toxins, 
but  with  some  persons,  quite  generally  with  elderly  persons, 
these  organs  are  unable  to  perform  effectively  all  the  work  that 
is  assigned  to  them.  The  case  is  aggravated  if  a  person  habitually 
takes  toxic  matter  into  his  system  in  his  food  or  drink.  All 
flesh  foods  contain  a  greater  or  less  amount  of  ash,  and  a  person 
who  is  a  heavy  meat  eater  is  usually  in  a  "tired"  condition 
much  of  the  time.  Also  a  heavy  tea  or  coffee  or  beer  drinker 
is  generally  in  a  toxic  condition  and  so  is  easily  wearied. 

Often  one  sees  persons  in  middle  life  who  play  out  on  slight 

263 


264  MENTAL  DEXELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

effort  of  any  kind.  If  they  go  for  a  walk,  they  soon  become 
"winded,"  and  they  may  not  be  able  to  go  a  tenth  of  the  dis- 
tance that  others  of  their  age  can  go  without  complaining  of 
being  ''all  in."  These  persons  who  l:)ecome  tired  very  easily 
are  usually  burdened  with  uneliminated  toxic  matter. 

A  group   of   boys   who    try    out   for    positions    on    athletic 

teams  in   a   high   school    or    college    usually    differ    markedly 

in   their    power    of    endurance.     One    may    lose    his 

differ  in         wind  quickly,  while  another  may  keep  going  in  good 

power  of        form  for  a  relatively  long  period.     In  the  first  case,  the 

endurance        ^  _  ./or 

individual  is  deficient  either  in  breathing  capacity  or 
in  the  activity  of  the  eliminative  organs,  or  he  has  superfluous 
flesh,  or  his  system  is  so  full  of  toxins  that  a  slight  exertion  will 
overbalance  the  breathing  and  eliminative  mechanisms,  and 
he  will  soon  slow  down  or  stop  altogether.  But  the  individual 
who  can  hold  out  a  long  time  without  fatigue  has  trained  his 
breathing  and  eliminative  organs  so  that  they  will  quickly 
respond  to  heavy  demands  made  on  them.  He  has  accomplished 
this  probably  by  daily  practice  in  which  he  has  pushed  a  little 
farther  every  day  until  he  has  reached  his  maximum.  The 
organs  can  be  trained  in  this  way  so  that  they  can  support 
prolonged  and  vigorous  action.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  organs 
have  not  been  trained  gradually  to  perform  lively  and  pro- 
longed tasks,  but  if  they  are  called  upon  now  to  do  so,  they  will 
not  be  equal  to  the  occasion ;  and  what  is  more  serious,  they 
will  be  likely  to  suffer  from  overstrain. 

Take  a  man,  for  example,  who  has  not  engaged  in  a  foot  race  for 
a  year,  but  in  the  meantime  he  has  indulged  his  appetite  gen- 
erously, and  now  he  goes  to  a  picnic  and  takes  part  in  a  race. 
He  may  be  laid  up  for  days  as  a  result  of  overstrain  simply 
because  he  called  upon  his  muscles  and  vital  organs  to  do  work 
for  which  they  were  not  prepared.  If  he  had  trained  up  by 
degrees  for  the  race  he  could  probably  have  engaged  in  it  time 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  265 

and  again  and  would  have  been  fresh  and  vigorous    the  next 
day.     He  would  not  have  had  a  sore  muscle  or  a  sensitive  heart. 

The  law  holds  for  the  brain  as  fully  as  for  other  organs.     A 
pupil  can  be  trained  to  do  hard  and  prolonged  mental  as  well  as 
physical  tasks  without  fatigue  or  any  ill  consequences.   Trainin 
But    if  he   be  out  of   school  for  six  months  or  so,  for  mental 
working  with  his  muscles,  and  then  be  plunged  into 
mental    tasks    demanding    long    endurance    he   will    be    Ukely 
to  suffer  some  nervous  disturbance.     If  he  start  gradually  and 
go  a  little  farther  each  day  or  each  week  he  can  train  the  brain 
and  nervous  system  so   that  they  will  sustain  comparatively 
long,  hard  application  without  being  injured  or  overcome  by  it. 

One  of  the  purposes  of  education  should  be  to  lead  the  young 
to  keep  themselves  fit,  alike  for  physical  and  for  mental  tasks. 
A  boy  who  lies  around  the  house  during  vacations  engaging 
neither  in  vigorous  physical  exercise  nor  mental  occupation  will 
probably  become  flabby  in  body  and  mind.  When  he  is  required 
to  perform  a  physical  or  mental  task  of  any  importance,  he  will 
be  likely  to  find  that  he  is  unfit,  and  exertion  of  any  kind  may 
incapacitate  him  for  some  time.  Children  need  to  have  the 
notion  implanted  in  their  minds  also  that  they  cannot  keep  fit 
if  they  take  toxic  matter  into  the  system  by  the  use  of  tea  or 
coffee.  Heavy  indulgence  in  candy  or  sugar  usually  makes  one 
unfit.  More  serious  than  any  of  them  in  lessening  endurance, 
in  a  young  person  at  any  rate,  is  tobacco.  Nature  shows  that 
tobacco  is  an  enemy  of  the  immature  organism,  for  when  the  boy 
first  employs  it  he  is  usually  made  sick.  Nature  tries  to  develop 
immunity  to  it  if  it  be  continually  used,  and  while  she  succeeds, 
better  in  some  cases  than  in  others,  she  probably  never  develops 
such  resistance  to  nicotine  in  an  immature  boy  that  it  does 
not  act  as  a  handicap  in  endurance.  Men  who  train  athletes 
are  well  aware  of  this  fact. 

The  first  requisite,  then,  in  developing  endurance  is  to  keep  the 


266  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

organism  free  from  toxic  matter.  If  we  could  preserve  a  toxin- 
free  organism  it  could  continue  in  action  without  overstrain  so 
long  as  it  could  secure  food  and  oxygen  to  furnish  energy.  Many 
of  those  who  become  fatigued  most  readily  have  superfluous 
flesh  which  could  be  used  to  develop  energy  if  the  eliminative 
organs  could  be  utilized.  Young  persons  should  early  be  helped 
to  think  straight  in  regard  to  this  matter. 

Training  for  endurance  can,  of  course,  be  overdone.  A 
boy  could  go  so  far  in  the  development  of  his  lungs,  heart 
Training  ^^^  Other  organs  that  he  would  have  to  keep  up 
can  be  very  vigorous  exercise  throughout  his  life  or  his  over- 

developed organs  would  degenerate.  Athletes  are  fre- 
quently overtrained.  A  few  years  after  they  leave  college 
they  may  suffer  from  fatty  degeneration  of  the  heart,  or  from 
diseases  of  the  lungs  or  other  vital  organs.  If  the  heart  has  been 
developed  to  endure  very  strenuous  tasks,  it  must  continue  to  be 
so  used  or  it  may  deteriorate.  If  the  lungs  have  been  expanded 
to  the  full  in  training  and  after  a  time  are  only  half  used,  the 
parts  that  are  left  idle  are  likely  to  become  diseased.  The  same 
principle  holds  for  all  the  organs.  One's  training,  then,  should 
not  go  much,  if  any,  beyond  his  needs  in  mature  life.  If  the 
training  is  less  than  his  needs  require,  he  will  be  handicapped 
in  the  race  of  life.  If  the  training  is  much  in  excess  of  what 
his  needs  require,  he  will  be  subject  to  degeneration  of  the  over- 
trained but  little-used  organs. 

Dr.  Dearborn,  of  Tufts  Medical  College,  has  recently  directed 

attention  to  the  daily  variation  in  the  amount  of  energy  which 

a  pupil  can  draw  upon  in  accomplishing  the  work  of 

Off  dflys  " 

the  school.  He  has  brought  forward  a  considerable 
amount  of  technical  evidence  indicating  that  an  individual  may 
not  have  as  much  energy  for  work  on  one  day  as  he  will  have  on 
another  day,  though  there  may  be  no  apparent  cause  for  this 
variation.     When  his  energy  is  low,  an  individual  will  not  per- 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  267 

form  his  tasks  with  interest  and  vigor,  and  at  such  times  he  will 
make  progress  very  slowly. 

Dr.  Dearborn  maintains  that  we  are  warranted  in  saying 
positively  that  all  individuals,  children  particularly,  have  their 
''off  days,"  when  little  may  be  expected  of  them,  and  when  hard 
work  should  not  be  demanded  of  them.  He  makes  the  practical 
suggestion  that  school  duties  should  be  so  planned  that  pupils 
may  do  their  work  when  they  feel  in  trim  for  it,  and  be  permitted 
to  vegetate  when  their  energies  are  low  and  they  have  to  be 
urged  to  apply  themselves  to  their  tasks.  Undoubtedly  there  is 
an  important  principle  here  which  the  teacher  should  recognize 
and  observe,  so  far  as  may  be  expedient ;  but  it  seems  that  this 
matter  may  easily  be  carried  too  far.  Viewed  from  one  stand- 
point, every  day  is  an  "off  day"  for  many  pupils  in  respect  to 
much  of  the  work  which  we  think  they  should  do  for  their  own 
welfare.  This  means  that  the  attractions  of  the  schoolroom 
are  not  so  enticing  as  the  activities  of  the  playground  and  the 
street,  and  the  seduction  of  the  moving  picture  show  and  the 
baseball  park.  Let  the  typical  pupil  from  seven  to  twenty 
years  of  age  follow  his  own  course  and  he  will  shy  off  from  most 
of  the  tasks  of  the  school.  However,  if  these  tasks  be  made 
concrete  and  dynamic ;  if  a  motor  element  be  introduced  into 
each  study  so  far  as  this  is  practicable ;  if  the  competitive 
element  be  brought  into  the  work  of  the  school,  so  that  to  some 
extent  it  will  have  the  aspect  of  a  game,  then  the  pupil  will 
attack  it  with  greater  readiness  than  he  otherwise  would.  But 
even  so,  it  will  probably  be  necessary  to  urge  pupils  on  many 
occasions  to  apply  themselves  to  tasks  which  we  think  will  be 
of  service  to  them  in  mature  life. 

It  seems  probable  that  most  of  the  "off  days"  which  any 
pupil  is  likely  to  have  may  be  eliminated  by  vigorous  exercise 
of  will.  An  observing  adult  cannot  fail  to  note  that  he  has 
"off  days"  himself,  but  by  reasonable  effort  he  is  often  able  to 


268     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

change  them  into  active  days.  Modern  research  has  made  it 
seem  probable  that  every  person  possesses  a  certain  amount  of 
latent  energy  which  cannot  be  drawn  upon  except  by  energetic 
effort  of  will.  A  well-trained  person  can  undoubtedly  decrease 
the  number  of  his  ''off  days."  Of  course,  not  much  can  be 
expected  in  this  direction  in  childhood ;  but  an  adult  could  not 
gain  the  power  to  utilize  this  latent  energy  unless  throughout 
his  developmental  period  he  had  some  experience  in  so  doing. 

Surely  no  greater  misfortune  could  overtake  any  individual 
than  to  be  brought  up  on  the  principle  that  he  need  never  apply 
himself  to  any  task  unless  it  attracts  him  at  the  moment.  It 
is  a  matter  of  common  experience  that  unattractive  activities 
at  the  start  may  become  fairly  attractive  by  keeping  at  them 
until  they  make  a  positive  instead  of  a  negative  appeal.  And 
when  the  pupil  has  had  successful  experience  in  converting 
negative  into  positive  interests,  he  will  be  establishing  an  apper- 
ceptive basis  for  continued  success  in  the  future.  This  is  really 
what  is  meant  by  a  strong,  capable  personality;  it  is  one  in 
whose  past  there  have  been  so  many  achievements  in  accomplish- 
ing tasks  that  have  been  neutral  or  positively  distasteful  at  the 
moment  that  the  sense  of  conquest  has  become  established, 
and  the  individual  feels  that  he  can  convert  these  neutral, 
distasteful  tasks  into  positive  and  agreeable  ones. 

Of  course,  this  does  not  release  the  teacher  from  the  necessity 
of  striving  to  win  his  pupil's  attention  by  the  attractive  character 
of  his  work.  Even  then  there  will  be  tasks  enough  to  afford 
every  pupil  experience  in  attacking  problems  which  at  the 
moment  do  not  make  a  positive  appeal  to  him.  Again,  the 
teacher  should  recognize  that  in  every  pupil's  hfe  there  will  be 
days  when  tasks  cannot  be  performed  with  as  great  readiness 
or  pleasure  as  at  other  times,  and  due  allowance  must  be  made 
for  this  slump  in  work ;  but  nevertheless  the  teacher  must  hold 
the  pupil  for  reasonable  effort  every  day.  encouraging  him  to  do 


OVERSTRAIN   IN    EDUCATION  269 

his  best  to  win  out  in  his  enterprises.  As  he  grows  older  he  may 
be  depended  upon  more  and  more  to  regulate  his  own  efforts ; 
but  as  a  child,  dominated  by  primitive  interests  which  are  for 
the  most  part  wholesome  but  which  are  not  adequate  for  mature 
life,  he  must  be  guided,  controlled,  and  even  urged  to  establish 
other  interests  which  in  time  will  come  to  rule  over  the  primitive 
ones.  It  is  practically  certain  that  the  pupil  will  not  accomplish 
all  he  should  in  this  direction  without  some  pressure  from  his 
environment  and  especially  from  his  teacher,  who  sees  the  road 
he  must  travel  if  he  would  reach  his  proper  destination. 

The  following  complaint  of  a  New  York  woman  presents  a 
problem  which  is  troubling  a  large  proportion  of  the  New  times 

bring  new 

people  of  this  country  :  problems 

"In  my  family  there  is  something  wrong.  In  my  father's  family 
there  were  eleven  who  lived  to  a  good  age ;  in  my  husband's  father's 
family  there  were  seven ;  in  his  mother's  family  there  were  eight, 
strong  and  vigorous.  Their  parents  evidently  got  along  well  with 
their  work,  while  I  am  often  overtaxed  in  caring  for  three  children, 
none  of  whom  is  very  strong.  I  see  the  same  condition  of  affairs 
all  around  me,  even  though  families  are  growing  smaller.  The 
doctors  say  "  Get  more  fresh  air,  sleep  with  open  windows,  eat  simple 
food."  At  the  same  time  we  may  look  around  and  see  foreigners 
with  as  large  families  as  ours  used  to  be  crowded  into  small,  poorly 
ventilated  shacks,  eating  the  poorest  of  unhygienic  food.  For  in- 
stance, an  Italian  babe  may  be  quieted  with  an  ear  of  green  corn  that 
would  give  ours  the  colic,  and  yet  they  are  strong  and  vigorous." 

In  commenting  on  the  situation  described  in  this  letter  it 
may  be  noted  first  that  nature  is  economical.     She  ^.    . 

•;  The  law  of 

husbands    her   energies   carefully   in    constructing   a  economy 
human  being  as  in  all  her  undertakings.     She  will  not  ^„  ^^  °^' 
develop  or  maintain  large  muscles,  for  instance,  when  maintaining 
one  does  not  use  or  need  them.     She  will  not  keep 
the  teeth  in  repair  if  they  are  not  required  to  grind  hard  food. 


270  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

If  one  should  bandage  his  eyes,  he  would  lose  his  vision,  simply 
because  nature  would  not  maintain  the  very  delicate  mechanism 
required  for  sight. 

Again,  nature  always  aims  to  construct  and  maintain  organs 
so  that  they  will  be  best  adapted  to  the  special  work  they  are 
required  to  do.  One  can  see  this  illustrated  in  the  case  of  animals. 
For  example,  take  a  horse  which  lives  out-of-doors  in  winter. 
Nature  develops  a  thick  fur  as  a  protection  against  wind  and 
weather.  Now  put  this  same  horse  in  a  warm  stable,  and  cover 
him  with  a  blanket  every  time  he  is  taken  out-of-doors.  Feed 
him  oats  and  prepared  food  instead  of  straw.  Nature  will  then 
say:  ''This  horse  does  not  need  a  heavy  fur.  The  skin  does 
not  need  to  be  toughened.  Therefore  I  will  maintain  only  a 
thin  fur,  and  will  leave  the  skin  sensitive.  I  will  not  keep  the 
digestive  organs  so  vigorous  either,  because  they  will  not  need 
to  take  care  of  coarse,  innutritious  food." 

When  a  man  protects  his  high-bred  horses  from  wind  and 
weather  he  reduces  their  resistance  to  cold  and  hard  usage. 
Take  a  horse  which  has  been  so  protected  for  part  of  the  winter 
and  fed  on  prepared  food,  and  then  turn  him  out  suddenly  to  the 
straw  stack.  He  will  perish.  Nature  cannot  change  her  pro- 
gram overnight. 

This  law  of  nature  applies  to  human  life.  Our  remote  an- 
cestors had  greater  biceps  and  leg  and  jaw  muscles  than  most 
of  us  have  now.  They  needed  them  in  their  business.  They 
were  in  competition  with  the  beasts  of  the  forest ;  and  in  a  life 
of  this  kind  muscle  is  the  chief  requirement.  We  of  to-day  have 
in  a  sense  declined  physically.  And  why?  Because  nature  has 
concluded  that  over-sized  biceps  and  leg  and  jaw  muscles  will  be 
a  handicap  rather  than  a  help  to  most  men  now  since  intelligence 
has  come  largely  to  take  the  place  of  muscle.  A  cave-age  man 
living  in  a  modern  town  or  city,  or  even  in  most  places  in  the 
country,  would  have  pains  and  diseases  a  great  deal   of  the 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  271 

time.     His  big  muscles  could  not  be  utilized,  and  nature  would 
try  to  reduce  them. 

Men  who  work  hard  up  to  sixty,  or  so,  and  then  stop,  go 
to  pieces  rapidly  in  the  majority  of  cases.     Nature  appears  to 
say  :     "What  is  the  use  of  keeping  up  these  muscles,  organs 
these    digestive    and    eliminative   organs,  and    these  ^^^^  "^ 

not  used 

mental  faculties  now  that  the  man  has  no  need  of  tend  to 
them  ?  "     And  she  proceeds  to  get  rid  of  them  ;   which   degenerate 
means  that  the  man  degenerates. 

The  most  serious  aspect  of  this  matter  is  that  nature  al- 
ways penalizes  decay  of  organs.  What  she  has  built  up  she 
does  not  like  to  have  destroyed.  If  she  has  developed  big 
biceps,  for  instance,  and  a  man  does  not  use  them  and  they  begin 
to  deteriorate,  they  will  become  a  source  of  aches  and  pains. 
The  same  is  true  of  every  muscle  and  every  organ.  Nature  is 
seen  here  in  a  double  role ;  she  endeavors  to  eliminate  organs 
that  are  not  needed  in  the  individual's  activities,  and  at  the  same 
time  she  heaps  penalties  upon  him  when  he  permits  his  organs 
to  decay.  This  is  the  reason  why  most  men  who  Kve  an  intel- 
lectual Hfe  take  physical  exercise  of  some  sort,  even  though  they 
may  detest  it.  In  any  large  university  there  are  hundreds  of 
men  who  would  like  to  spend  every  moment  of  waking  life  at 
their  intellectual  tasks,  but  they  must  take  an  hour  or  two  each 
day  merely  to  exercise  their  muscles  and  stimulate  their  vital 
organs  so  as  to  keep  them  from  degenerating. 

Nature  is  apparently  exalting  the  mental  factor  in  human 
life.  She  is  using  parents,  teachers,  ministers,  legislators  and 
others  to    accomplish  her   purpose.     Parents   desire 

In  1 6  111  fif  G  nc  6 

their  children  to  be  educated  so  that  they  may  win  is  in  the 
a   livelihood   by   their   intelligence   rather  than    by  ascendancy 
their  muscles.     Teachers  are  working  in  the  same  direction. 

A  person  could  spend  his  life  in  a  single  room  to-day  in  most 
parts  of  the  civiUzed  world,  and  still  be  in  contact  with  the  whole 


272 


:ment.\l  development  and  education 


world  by  means  of  the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  newspapers, 
and  so  on.  He  could  accumulate  wealth  without  leaving  his 
room.  He  could  direct  the  operation  of  armies  of  men  without 
seeing  them.  The  man  who  can  issue  his  commands  and  make 
inquiries  by  telephone  or  telegraph  will  push  ahead  of  the  one 
who  has  to  go  on  his  own  legs  to  communicate  with  persons 
and  do  his  errands.     The  man  who  gets  to  the  top  to-day  is 


Fig.  65.  —  Outdoor  calisthenics.     (See  exercise  g,  page  3Q3.) 

the  one  who  makes  his  head  do  the  work  which  formerly  had  to 
be  done  by  arms  and  legs. 

Suppose  one  could  bring  a  denizen  of  the  woods  or  the  plains 
into  a  modern  city,  and  require  him  to  live  in  the  way  that  most 
city  people  do.  He  would  probably  soon  begin  to  decline.  He 
would  become  afflicted  with  consumption  or  hardening  of  the 
arteries  or  rheumatism  or  some  other  degenerative  disease. 
Nature  would  have  developed  his  body  and  mind  for  the  out-of- 
doors,  for  dealing  with  crude  physical  conditions,  and  she  could 
not  overnight  make  the  change  demanded   for  adjustment  to 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  273 

city  life.  In  the  same  way,  take  a  person  who  is  adjusted 
to  city  Hfe  and  send  him  out  on  the  frontier  to  shift  for  him- 
self and  he  will  probably  be  eUminated. 

Reverting  now  to  the  story  told  by  the  New  York  woman 
regarding  the  lack  of  robustness  in  her  family ;  there  is  nothing 
the  matter  with  her  family  which  is  not  the  matter 
with  the  majority  of  families  in  present-day  Ameri-  ^f »  ^"^® 
can  life.     This  woman  is  bringing  her  children  up  in  a  fi°f <i. " 

,.        .,        training 

refined  manner.  She  would  not  let  them  hve  m  the 
rough  way  in  which  the  children  of  poorer  families  live.  She 
protects  them  for  two  reasons  :  in  the  first  place,  she  wants  them 
to  be  more  delicate,  to  be  better  dressed,  to  look  better  cared  for 
and  to  be  more  poUte  in  their  actions  than  her  neighbor's  chil- 
dren are ;  in  the  second  place,  she  thinks  they  will  be  better  off 
if  they  are  safeguarded  than  if  they  are  left  to  eat  coarse  food  and 
to  be  lightly  clad  and  dirty.  But  when  she  makes  her  children 
"refined,"  she  robs  them  to  some  extent  of  their  power  to  com- 
bat disease  due  to  exposure.  It  is  exactly  the  same  in  principle 
with  an  individual  as  it  is  with  a  highly-bred  race  horse ;  re- 
finement is  secured  at  the  expense  of  endurance  of  crude,  harsh 
experience.     There  is  no  escape  from  it. 

This  mother  probably  prepares  her  children's  food  carefully. 
Their  dietary  doubtless  includes  mainly  soft,  delicate,  tempting 
foods.  She  would  not  think  of  limiting  her  children  principally 
to  hard  bread  and  milk  and  vegetables.  But  these  latter  are 
just  the  articles  that  are  eaten  by  the  poorer  children  which  this 
woman  says  are  healthier  than  her  own..  The  poorer  children 
may  have  better  teeth  than  the  richer  children,  provided,  of 
course,  that  they  make  use  of  the  toothbrush.  They  can  eat 
coarse  food  without  digestive  disturbance,  simply  because  vigor 
of  digestion  goes  with  a  rough  muscular  life.  The  out-in-the- 
open  children  have  rosier  cheeks  than  the  well-cared-for  indoors 
children  because  they  are  exposed  to  rougher  weather.     Nature 


74 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


has  to  send  the  blood  to  the  skin  to  protect  it  against  wind  and 
storm.  Persons  who  Hve  indoors  acquire  pale  cheeks  because 
they  do  not  need  a  different  kind. 

The  New  York  woman's  children  would  probably  have  throat 
and  lung  trouble  if  they  should  get  their  feet  wet,  whereas  the 
Hardening  poorer  children  might  have  their  feet  wet  every  day 
the  body  j^^^^  gtill  nothing  would  happen  to  them.  Why? 
Because  they  have  become  toughened  through  exposure.     The 


Fig.  66.  —  Vigorous  competitive  games  develop  endurance.     (See  exercise  g,  page  393.) 

Spartans  deliberately  hardened  their  children  in  this  manner, 
and  many  a  student  of  childhood  from  Locke  down  to  our  own 
day  has  advised  parents  not  to  "coddle"  their  children,  but 
rather  to  expose  them  to  a  certain  extent  from  the  very  begin- 
ning and  develop  their  resistance  to  harsh  experience. 

A  child  who  has  not  been  allowed  to  go  out-of-doors  during 
November,  December  or  January  without  a  heavy  coat  and 
overshoes  may  catch  his  death  of  cold  if  he  runs  out  by  accident 
in  February  without  protection,  for  the  reason  that  nature  has 
developed  his  whole  organism  on  the  assumption  that  he  would 
always  be  protected,  and  she  cannot  change  so  important  a 
matter  as  this  in  a  day. 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  275 

It  would  have  been  well  if  this  woman  had  begun  hardening 
her  children  from  the  start,  not  because  they  are  to  live  a  life 
of  hardship,  but  because  it  is  impossible  to  prevent  some  exposure 
during  childhood  and  youth.  A  mother  cannot  always  oversee 
her  children,  and  they  will  expose  themselves.  On  the  way  to 
school  they  will  play  as  the  other  children  do,  most  of  whom 
will  probably  be  more  hardened  than  they  are,  and  they  will 
suffer  for  it. 

If  a  child  could  be  protected  always  from  exposure  there 
would  be  no  great  advantage  in  hardening  him  from  the  begin- 
ning. It  is  an  exploded  theory  that  one  can  harden  a  child 
in  the  first  year,  and  that  he  will  keep  the  resistance  thus 
developed  into  maturity  without  any  further  training.  Men 
who  have  been  brought  up  in  the  country  accustomed  to  all 
kinds  of  exposure  lose  their  ability  to  resist  disease  in  a  very 
short  time  if  they  move  into  the  city  and  live  indoors. 

One  way  to  harden  a  child  is  not  to  over-clothe  him,  and 
especially  not  to  over-feed  him  on  soft,  highly-refined  foods. 
It  is  practically  impossible  to  develop  much  resistance  in  a  child 
who  Lives  on  mushes  and  white  bread  and  sweets  in  the  form  of 
sugar  and  candy.  A  good  way  to  make  a  child  able  to  resist  the 
effect  of  getting  wet  feet  and  wet  clothing  is  to  have  him  become 
accustomed  to  a  cold-water  shower  or  plunge  or  rub  every  day. 
This  will  develop  endurance  of  cold  water  when  it  is  encountered 
in  the  form  of  rain  or  thawing  snow. 

There  is  another  side  to  this  problem,  as  every  investigator 

to-day  knows.     The  children  of  poverty,  ill-fed  and  exposed  to 

hardships,  often  do  not  acquire  endurance,  but  in-    , 

^  ^  .  New  social 

stead  are  destroyed.  The  abnormally  high  death-  conditions 
rate  among  children  left  largely  to  care  for  themselves  ^obiem  a 
is  a  menace  in  American  life.     If  we  were  still  living  very  compii- 

.  .  .  .  cated  one 

entirely  under  primitive  conditions  the  neglected  child 

might  survive.     But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  child  in  a  town 


276  MENTAL   DE\ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

or  city  to-day  can  hoconie  innured  to  a  life  of  great  exposure 
because  he  must  walk  on  cement  sidewalks,  breathe  devitalized 
indoor  air,  and  have  his  senses  bombarded  by  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  modern  life.  He  cannot  adjust  himself  on  the  one  side 
to  the  highly  exciting,  restrictive,  and  refining  life  of  civilization, 
and  on  the  other  side  to  crude,  primitive  conditions.  He  is  not 
doing  it  fully,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  as  the  statistics  of  child  mor- 
tality indicate.  Children  must  be  protected  to  some  degree  while 
at  the  same  time  being  hardened  so  that  they  can  endure  the 
sort  of  exposure  that  they  are  practically  certain  to  experience 
sooner  or  later. 

The  chief  requirement  in  modern  life,  so  far  as  promoting 
the  health  of  children  is  concerned,  is  improvement  in  com- 
munity or  public  hygiene.  Fortunately,  we  are  making  progress 
in  this  regard.  A  child  of  civilization  cannot  resist  most  con- 
tagious diseases  as  well  as  a  primitive  child  can ;  but  we  are 
compensating  for  the  loss  of  immunity  by  preventing  the  spread 
of  contagious  diseases  so  that  children  will  not  be  exposed  to 
them.  Children  in  the  city  cannot  endure  rough,  hard  conditions 
in  the  schoolroom,  but  we  are  making  good  this  loss,  too,  by 
constantly  improving  these  conditions.  This  is  all  in  the  right 
direction,  and  we  must  persist  in  this  work  until  our  children 
in  the  towns  and  cities  can  have  clean  milk,  clean  air,  room 
to  play  out-of-doors  and  hygienic  conditions  indoors. 

In  some  parts  of  our  country  the  view  prevails  that  a 
woman  is  a  good  housekeeper  if  she  can  provide  "  three  square 
meals"  a  day.  The  reputation  of  boarding  houses  in 
and  under-  such  places  depends  upon  the  amount  of  food  which 
ceamng  .^  ^^^  before  guests.  The  man  of  the  house  likes  to 
be  known  as  a  good  provider.  In  the  towns  and  cities  in  these 
sections  the  chief  talk  of  the  residents  concerns  eating.  When 
strangers  visit  the  city  they  hear  first  about  the  eating-places,  — 
the  restaurants,  the  cafes,  and  so  on.     The  chief  favor  which 


OVERSTRAIN  IN   EDUCATION  277 

a  host  can  show  his  guest  is  to  take  him  to  a  famous  restaurant 
and  "  fill  him  up."  Meat  shops  and  grocery  and  confectionery- 
stores  predominate.  The  thoughts  of  people  in  these  places 
are  concerned  very  largely  with  their  ahmentary  canals. 

One  would  not  find  so  much  fault  with  this  constant  stress  on 
eating  if  the  people  utihzed  the  energy  derived  from  the  food 
consumed  in  keeping  clean  and  in  social  service ;  but  as  a  rule 
the  more  attention  that  is  given  to  eating  in  a  community,  the 
less  that  is  given  to  cleanliness  and  to  the  higher  forms  of  social 
intercourse.  The  writer  could  take  any  doubter  into  houses  in 
the  localities  mentioned  and  show  him  tables  burdened  with 
a  great  variety  of  rich  food,  from  which  the  inmates  would  be 
gorging  themselves  three  or  four  times  a  day ;  but  there  would 
not  be  one  really  clean  room  in  any  of  the  houses.  The  energy 
of  the  housekeeper  and  her  assistants  would  be  spent  almost 
entirely  in  buying  and  preparing  food.  There  would  be  dust  all 
over  the  furniture.  The  carpets  would  not  be  thoroughly  cleaned 
from  one  year's  end  to  another;  the  only  effort  made  to  clean 
them  would  be  to  go  over  them  superficially  once  in  a  while  with 
a  dry  broom.  This  would  stir  up  the  dust,  which  would  settle 
down  upon  the  furniture,  and  some  of  it  would  lodge  in  the  respira- 
tory passages  of  anyone  who  was  unfortunate  enough  to  be  in  the 
room  at  the  time.  Places  not  conspicuously  in  view  would  not  be 
touched  at  all  with  brooms  or  anything  else.  The  back  stairs  and 
the  back  yard  would  be  found  filled  with  litter,  the  accumulation 
of  weeks  and  months.     Even  the  dishes  would  not  be  clean. 

Outside  the  house  one  would  find  dust  blowing  from  streets 
which  are  never  thoroughly  cleaned.  In  such  communities 
people  spend  so  much  time  in  dining  rooms  that  they  cannot 
give  proper  attention  to  sanitation.  Surveys  made  in  some  of 
these  communities  have  shown  that  not  even  ordinary  pre- 
cautions are  taken  to  secure  milk  and  water  free  from  disease 
germs.     Such  people  are  more  eager  to  get  an  abundance  of 


278  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

milk  than  to  get  wholesome  milk.  It  is  so  with  all  the  food  in 
such  places.  One  can  find  food  exposed  on  streets  from  which 
filth  is  constantly  blowing. 

What  about  the  health  of  the  people  in  these  places,  especially 
the  children?  The  chances  are  that  if  you  will  take  fifty  chil- 
Heaith  and  drcn,  choscn  at  random,  over  half  of  them  will  be 
cleanliness  coughing  or  sniftling  or  complaining  of  internal  pains 
or  suffering  from  skin  diseases  of  some  kind.  In  one  community 
recently  visited  at  least  half  of  all  the  children  in  the  schools 
were  coughing,  sometimes  hard  enough  to  disturb  the  school. 
In  the  homes  of  these  children  their  coughs  and  stomach-aches 
were  taken  as  a  matter  of  course,  arranged  for  in  the  divine  pro- 
gram of  child  life. 

One  who  eats  "three  square  meals''  of  rich  food  every  day, 
with  "snacks "in  between,  but  who  is  not  engaged  in  hard  labor, 
makes  a  good  host  for  germs.  The  guardians  of  his  health  are 
so  busy  getting  rid  of  his  excess  food  that  they  cannot  success- 
fully resist  the  invading  bacteria,  and  the  latter  easily  establish 
themselves  along  the  respiratory  tract  or  in  the  digestive  system 
or  on  the  skin  of  their  victim.  Any  observing  reader  must  have 
noticed  that  after  a  festival  season  the  revelers  are  especially 
liable  to  germ  diseases.  It  is  usually  the  case  that  when  students 
go  home  from  colleges  or  preparatory  schools  during  holidays 
and  over-indulge  in  food  and  other  dissipations,  they  return  with 
nasal,  bronchial  and  digestive  troubles,  all  of  them  of  germ 
origin.  Records  have  been  kept  in  some  colleges  and  schools 
which  show  marked  increase  in  bacterial  diseases  after  seasons 
of  over-indulgence  in  food  and  drink. 

Teachers  say  their  work  is  harder  on  Monday  than  on  any 
other  day  in  the  week,  because  pupils  are  more  restless  and  mis- 
Biue  chievous,  and    they  do   not   learn   so  readily.     One 

Monday  might  c.xpect  just  the  opposite  of  this.  Some  would 
expect    Friday    to  be  the  crucial    day,  because    the  pupils  are 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  279 

fatigued  from  the  week's  work.  But  teachers'  reports  indicate 
that  this  is  not  the  case.  Records  made  of  cases  of  school  dis- 
cipline show  that  as  a  rule  pupils  are  better  behaved  on  all  other 
days  than  they  are  on  Monday. 

What  can  be  the  explanation  ?  Is  it  not  this,  that  for  most  chil- 
dren Sunday  is  a  day  of  feasting,  when  it  ought  to  be  a  day  of 
fasting,  or  at  least  of  temperance  ?  As  a  rule  —  there  arc 
exceptions,  but  they  are  rare  —  children  eat  more  on  Sunday 
than  on  other  days.  Families  that  may  live  rather  simply  during 
the  week  often  lay  themselves  out  to  have  fine  meals  on  Sunday. 
If  they  have  cakes  and  honey,  for  instance,  on  one  day  of  the 
week,  it  is  Hkely  to  be  on  Sunday  morning.  Whatever  other 
dish  is  especially  inviting  will  be  saved  for  this  feasting  day. 
The  desserts  will  be  especially  rich  and  elaborate  at  Sunday 
dinner,  and  there  will  be  sweets  again,  candy  probably,  at  supper 
time. 

Suppose  a  family  have  indulged  on  Sunday  excessively  in 
honey,  maple  sirup,  hot  cakes,  hot  biscuits,  flesh  foods,  rich 
pastries  and  cakes,  ice  cream,  candy,  and  possibly  coffee  and  tea. 
Take  the  children  of  this  family  on  Monday  morning.  The 
chances  are  they  will  be  dull  and  irritable.  They  are  so  full  of 
unassimilated  food,  and  especially  sugar,  that  neither  mind  nor 
body  is  in  good  condition.  Follow  such  children  to  school,  and 
you  will  find  that  they  are  likely  to  make  life  a  burden  for  the 
teacher.  This  is  one  reason  why  Monday  is  a  hard  day  for 
teaching  and  discipline. 

How  has  it  come  about  that  Sunday  is  a  feast  day  in  most 
families?  Like  so  many  of  our  other  customs,  it  is  left  over 
from  a  time  when  everybody  worked  hard  for  six  days  in  the 
week,  and  there  was  not  much  danger  of  their  over-eating  on 
Sunday.  But  now  that  the  majority  of  people  eat  as  much  as 
they  need  and  a  little  more  every  day  in  the  week,  Sunday 
feasting  is  a  source  of  a  good  deal  of  mischief.     Our  habits  of 


28o  iMENlAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

life  will  not  permit  without  harm  of  such  indulgence  on  Sunday 
as  is  common  in  American  families.  In  the  circumstances 
we  should  adopt  the  practice  of  making  the  meals  on  Sunday 
more  of  the  nature  of  light  luncheons  rather  than  of  heavy  meals. 
Particularly  tempting  dishes  ought  to  be  reserved  for  the  days 
on  which  there  is  likely  to  be  a  good  deal  of  outdoor  activity. 

A  large  part  of  the  effort  of  teachers  in  the  schools  of  this 
country  goes  to  waste  on  account  of  bad  air  in  schoolrooms. 
P  jjj  The  messages  of  ministers  to  their  flocks  produce 
relation  to  but  slight  response  because  of  bad  air  in  the  churches. 
Many  of  the  sick  in  hospitals  regain  their  strength 
slowly  when  they  should  recover  rapidly,"^ because  of  bad  air; 
children  and  adults  alike  in  many  homes  feel  lethargic  and  are 
irritable  because  of  bad  air  in  living  and  sleeping  rooms. 

What  is  bad  air?  Nine  out  of  ten  persons  think  that  air 
is  bad  only  when  it  has  been  breathed  over  by  human  beings. 
It  is  believed  then  to  contain  a  large  amount  of  carbonic  acid 
gas  which  is  thought  to  be  harmful  to  human  life. 

The  following  question  was  recently  asked  of  a  group  of  one 
hundred  teachers :  If  you  should  open  the  windows  of  your 
schoolroom  and  leave  them  open  long  enough  to  change  the  air, 
could  you  then  close  them  and  have  good  air  in  your  room  for, 
say,  a  half  hour  ?  Nearly  every  teacher  answered  in  the  affirm- 
ative. The  reason  given  was  that  there  would  be  oxygen  enough 
in  the  air  to  last  for  half  an  hour,  unless  the  room  were  over- 
crowded. These  teachers  declared  that  the  best  plan  to  secure 
good  air  when  it  is  not  provided  by  a  special  ventilating  system 
is  to  open  the  windows  occasionally,  and  let  in  a  supply  of  oxygen. 
This  is  the  way  in  which  most  teachers  who  have  to  rely  upon  their 
own  devices  seek  to  keep  good  air  in  their  schoolrooms.  It  is  the 
plan  followed  also  (when  any  plan  is  followed)  by  janitors  in  charge 
of  churches,  by  housekeepers,  and  by  most  of  those  who  have 
charge  of  buildings  in  which  people,  young  or  old,  have  to  live. 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  281 

During  the  last  ten  years  a  number  of   persons  have  been 
making  careful  investigations  of  the  efifect  of  different  methods 
of   ventilation   upon    the   physical,  intellectual    and  ^j^^^  ^^^ 
emotional  conditions  and  activities  of  people.     Sub-  therequire- 

•••11  r     1-rr  ments  for 

jects  have  been  put  m  air-tight  closets  of  different  good  ven- 
temperatures,  diflferent  degrees  of  humidity,  and  *^^**°° 
different  conditions  with  respect  to  the  movement  of  the  con- 
tained air.  It  has  been  shown  time  and  again  that  when  a 
person  is  encased  in  a  room  in  which  the  air  is  not  circulating, 
he  experiences  discomfort  almost  immediately.  Soon  he  feels 
disinclined  to  effort  of  any  kind.  Before  long  he  is  Ukely  to  com- 
plain of  dizziness  and  marked  disturbance  in  other  ways,  and  in 
a  relatively  short  time  he  may  collapse.  If  the  temperature  is 
at  or  a  little  above  70  degrees,  if  the  humidity  is  high  in  the 
enclosed  room,  and  if  there  is  no  movement  of  the  air,  the  sub- 
ject will  very  soon  become  incapacitated.  If  the  temperature 
is  at  or  a  little  below  65  degrees,  and  the  humidity  is  also  low, 
he  will  endure  longer  than  in  the  first  case.  If  the  tempera- 
ture is  low  but  the  humidity  high,  he  will  experience  dis- 
comfort and  be  put  out  of  commission  sooner  than  if  both  the 
temperature  and  the  humidity  are  low. 

Experiments  have  been  made  showing  conclusively  that  if 
the  air  is  not  in  motion  in  the  closet,  the  subject  will  faint  in 
a  brief  period,  even  when  he  breathes  fresh  air  through  a  tube. 
That  is  to  say,  the  mere  breathing  of  pure  air  will  not  prevent 
discomfort,  indisposition  to  effort,  and  final  collapse.  It  is 
evident  that  air  affects  the  body  in  other  ways  than  through 
respiration,  and  that  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the  air  is  not  the 
only  important  factor  in  ventilation. 

Other  experiments  have  shown  that  one  may  breathe  air 
which  has  been  breathed  over  a  number  of  times  in  an  air-tight 
compartment,  and  he  will  suffer  no  marked  ill  effects  therefrom 
if  the  air  is  kept  in  circulation   constantly.     Oxygen  comprises 


28.'  MENTAL    1)E\  ELUl'MLNT   AND   EDUCATION 

iibout  twenty -fiN'c  per  cent  of  outdoor  air.  Investigations 
have  proven  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to  reduce  the 
amount  of  oxygen  in  breathed  air  below  twenty  per  cent.  The 
carbonic  acid  gas  constitutes  about  four  parts  in  10,000  in  out- 
door air.  It  is  ditVuult  to  raise  this  even  in  badly  ventilated 
rooms  above  eighteen  or  twenty  parts  in  10,000.  There  seems 
to  be  something  like  an  equilibrium  maintained  among  the 
elements  of  air  even  in  enclosed  spaces.  Oxygen  will  leak  in 
through  minute  openings,  and  carbon  dioxide  will  ooze  out  even 
through  the  ceiling  and  the  walls  of  a  room. 

Now  take  a  youth  or  a  man  to  be  tested,  place  him  in  an  air- 
tight closet,  and  have  both  the  temperature  and  the  humidity 
high.  If  nothing  else  is  done,  he  will  soon  have  a  headache, 
and  begin  to  feel  faint  and  dizzy.  Before  he  collapses  set  the 
air  in  motion  with  an  electric  fan.  Soon  he  will  be  revived. 
So  long  as  the  air  is  kept  in  motion,  with  the  temperature  and 
humidity  high,  he  will  be  comfortable  in  an  air-tight  room.  If 
the  temperature  is  lowered  at  the  same  time  that  the  air  is  set  in 
motion,  the  subject  will  feel  more  comfortable  than  if  the  tem- 
perature remains  high.  If  the  temperature  remains  high,  but 
the  humidity  is  reduced,  the  subject  will  feel  better,  and  be  dis- 
posed to  exert  himself  more  than  if  the  humidity  remains  high. 

All  investigations  along  this  line  have  shown  that  one's  comfort 
and  his  disposition  to  apply  himself  to  physical  or  mental  tasks 
and  his  capacity  to  accomplish  work,  depend  very  largely  upon  the 
coolness,  dryness,  and  motion  of  the  atmosphere,  and  not  primarily 
upon  the  oxygen  or  other  content  of  the  air  that  is  breathed. 

People  usually  say  they  feel  dull  and  perhaps  have  a  head- 
ache on  a  hot,  moist,  still  day.  On  the  other  hand,  they  say 
they  feel  invigorated,  "Hke  a  new  person, "  when  the  temperature 
drops  and  a  breeze  starts  up.  The  same  effects  will  be  produced 
in  the  schoolroom,  the  church,  the  hospital,  and  the  home  as 
are  produced  out  in  the  open  when  the  atmospheric  conditions 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  283 

are  the  same.  When  summer  passes  and  pupils  are  being  shut 
up  in  closed  and  heated  buildings,  the  chances  are  that "  dead  "  air 
will  be  the  cause  of  lassitude  and  physical  and  mental  disability. 

It  seems  to  be  invariably  true  that  living  things  throw  off 
toxic  materials  which  must  be  removed  or  they  will  act  as 
poisons.  Crops  must  be  rotated  because  the  soil 
conditions  produced  by  any  crop  are  apt  to  prevent  effect  of 
the  development  of  another  good  crop  of  the  same  ".^e*^ " 
kind  in  immediate  succession.  The  same  principle 
seems  to  hold  for  the  human  body.  It  is  constantly  throwing 
off  through  the  skin  and  the  lungs  substances  which  must  be  re- 
moved in  order  that  the  body  may  maintain  its  vigor  and  pre- 
serve its  feeling  of  well-being.  The  body  is  a  sort  of  furnace, 
for  one  thing,  always  generating  heat.  But  at  the  same  time 
a  uniform  temperature  must  be  maintained  or  trouble  will 
follow.  This  requires  that  there  should  be  constant  readjust- 
ment of  the  body  to  the  temperature  conditions  in  the  environ- 
ment. If  the  temperature  of  the  surrounding  air  rises,  the  body 
must  shut  down  its  dampers,  and  open  its  flues  and  windows 
so  that  the  surplus  heat  may  escape.  If  the  heat  cannot  escape, 
fever  will  develop,  and  soon  the  entire  bodily  machinery  will  be 
thrown  out  of  order.  If  the  temperature  of  the  air  drops  sud- 
denly, the  windows  and  flues  must  be  closed  and  the  draughts 
opened.  This  fine  adjusting  and  balancing  is  done  in  a  reflex 
way,  of  course ;  and  all  the  time  the  body  is  throwing  off  moisture 
in  greater  or  less  quantity  according  as  it  needs  to  get  rid  of  or 
to  conserve  its  heat. 

Now  suppose  that  the  body  is  enveloped  in  a  layer  of  air 
which  changes  very  slowly.  This  air  becomes  surcharged  with 
moisture,  and  the  temperature  is  raised.  Sooner  or  later  both 
the  humidity  and  the  temperature  will  be  so  high  that  the  body 
will  have  trouble  in  getting  rid  of  its  surplus  heat  and  moisture. 
The  internal  organs  will  be  affected,  and  the  whole  body  will 


284 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


be  put  under  strain.  But  let  a  fresh  breeze  come  which  will 
remove  this  layer  of  "dead''  air,  and  at  once  the  body  will  be 
restored,  the  surplus  heat  will  be  eliminated,  the  feverish  con- 
ditions will  decline,  the  headache  will  disappear,  and  the 
machinery  of  life  will  run  smoothly  again. 

This  is  what  proper  ventilation  primarily  requires,  —  chang- 
ing the  layer  of  air  next  the  body  so  as  to  prevent  "dead" 

air  from  accumulating 
there.  Of  course,  the  air 
can  change  so  rapidly, 
especially  when  the  tem- 
perature is  low,  that  the 
body  is  called  upon  to 
generate  a  large  amount 
of  heat  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  body  tempera- 
ture. If  this  tempera- 
ture falls  much  below  the 
normal,  there  will  be 
trouble  in  plenty  on  hand. 
This  puts  an  unnecessary 
strain  upon  the  body,  and 
requires  its  resources  to 
be  turned  too  largely  into 
the  making  of  heat,  so  that  there  will  not  be  enough  left  to  sup- 
port action,  either  physical  or  mental. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  must  be  apparent  that  clothing 
plays  an  important  role  in  the  ventilation  of  the  body.  For 
The  role  illustration,  observe  the  change  which  occurs  in  the 
played  by  actions  of  a  boy  who  during  the  summer  has  been 
i^n°maintain-  living  in  the  open  air  without  much  clothing,  but 
ing  vigor  ^^^^  when  September  arrives  is  enswathed  in  a 
closely  woven  suit  and   sent  to  school.     One  reason  he   feels 


Tig.  67.  —  The  chief  malady  of  the  schoolroom 
is  headache.     (See  exercise  10,  page  393.) 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  285 

dumpish  in  school  is  because  his  body  cannot  breathe  properly ; 
his  closely  woven  suit  prevents  the  circulation  of  air,  so  that 
a  layer  of  *'dead''  air  is  held  against  the  skin.  It  would  not  be 
so  serious  if  he  were  living  out-of-doors  in  a  strong  wind,  instead 
of  in  a  schoolhouse  where  the  air  is  quiet.  Under  the  latter 
condition  a  person,  young  or  old,  cannot  be  anything  but  dull  and 
inattentive.  The  chances  are  that  he  will  frequently  complain 
of  headache  or  some  other  trouble,  and  the  teacher  will  discipline 
him  for  lack  of  application  to  his  studies. 

A  person  should  wear  clothing  which  will  permit  the  free 
ventilation  of  the  body  while  at  the  same  time  preventing  the 
too  rapid  loss  of  heat.  Every  one  feels  better  in  loosely  woven 
clothes  than  he  does  in  those  through  which  the  air  can  pass 
only  very  slowly.  If  any  reader  of  these  lines  has  a  dull  child 
in  home  or  school,  —  one  who  out  in  the  open  is  bright  and 
responsive,  —  one  thing  to  do  is  to  examine  his  clothing.  There 
may  be  many  causes  of  his  dullness,  but  one  cause  may  be  that 
he  is  encased  in  practically  air-tight  clothes,  so  that  there  is  little 
opportunity  for  free  circulation  of  air  about  his  body. 

Recently  some  investigations  were  undertaken  on   the  heat- 
ing of  schoolrooms  in  a  city  in  the  Middle  West.     An  accurate 
report  was  made  on  the  temperature  of  a  large  num-  Energy  in 
ber  of    rooms    at    different    hours    during   the   day.  relation  to 

mdoor 

Records  were  kept  of  the  temperature  (i)  on  the  iioor,  tem- 
(2)  at  about  the  level  of  the  pupils'  heads  when  they  p^''^**^® 
were  sitting,  and  (3)  at  the  height  of  their  heads  when  they 
were  standing.  The  temperature  at  the  height  of  the  pupils' 
heads  was  uniformly  higher  than  it  was  at  their  feet.  In 
some  cases  there  were  25  degrees  difference.  Suppose  this 
condition  should  exist  for  several  hours  each  day  during  the 
winter.  It  is  practically  certain  that  pupils  would  have  hot 
heads  and  cold  feet.  And  what  would  this  lead  to?  Head- 
ache, congestion  of  the  mucous  membranes,  mental  cloudiness, 


286  MENTAL    DE\  ELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

indisposition  to  work,  and  a  general  feeling  of  unrest  and 
discomfort. 

When  a  pupil  is  working  hard  with  the  brain  and  the  tem- 
perature is  high  in  the  region  of  the  head  and  low  at  the  feet, 
nervous  disturbance  is  apt  to  follow,  and  he  is  likely  to  get  the 
''sniffles''  or  to  have  a  "stuffed-up  head."  Some  persons  can 
resist  better  than  others  marked  inequality  in  temperature 
between  the  head  and  the  feet,  but  probably  all  persons  are 
afifected  to  some  extent.  Undoubtedly  everyone  could  do 
better  work  with  less  strain  and  stress,  and  less  discomfort 
afterward,  if  the  temperature  could  be  practically  uniform  at  the 
foot  and  head  levels.  If  there  must  be  inequality  it  would  be 
better  to  have  the  higher  temperature  at  the  feet  when  one  is 
engaged  in  brain  work.  Mental  acti\'ity  tends  to  draw  the 
blood  to  the  head  anyway.  This  is  illustrated  in  psycho- 
logical laboratories.  A  subject  is  placed  on  a  balance  so  deli- 
cately adjusted  that  a  slight  increase  in  the  weight  of  the 
head  will  cause  the  balance  to  tip  headwards.  At  the  outset 
the  subject  is  at  rest,  engaged  in  no  vigorous  mental  activity. 
Then  he  is  given  a  difficult  problem  to  solve.  It  can  be  ob- 
served that,  if  he  works  vigorously  and  continues  long 
enough,  the  balance  will  often  incline  in  the  direction  of  the 
head. 

It  is  possible  to  arrange  a  heating  system  so  that  there  will 

not  be  20  or  2  s  degrees  difference  between  the  tempera- 
Arranging  a  11 
heating          turc  at  the  floor  and  that  at  the  head  level.    The  reason 

srls'to  there  is  such  a  difference  in  many  schoolrooms  is  be- 
avoid  cause  the  sources  of  heat  are  far  removed  from  the  win- 

in  tem-  dows  and  cold  walls  which  radiate  the  heat  quickly, 

between        ^^^  ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^  ^^  robbcd  of  its  heat  drops  on  the 
head  and       floor.     It  is   practically  impossible   to  heat  a  class- 
room properly  by  hot  air  alone,  unless  there  are  sev- 
eral inlets  to  the  room,  and  there  is  a  strong  forcing  system 


OVERSTRAIN   IN   EDUCATION  287 

wliich  keeps  currents  of  hot  air  driving  constantly  against  the 
windows  and  cold  walls. 

The  best  arrangement,  however,  is  to  have  hot  water  or 
steam  radiators  under  each  window,  and  in  addition  to  have 
warm  air  inlets  with  a  fan  system  which  will  keep  the  air  con- 
stantly in  circulation.  In  this  way  very  cold  air  cannot  con- 
centrate along  the  floor.  Investigations  have  been  made  in 
schoolrooms  in  some  of  our  coldest  cities  in  which  it  has  been 
shown  that  the  difference  in  temperature  between  the  floor  and 
the  head  level  is  slight.  It  will  probably  be  impossible  on  a  cold 
day  to  have  the  temperature  exactly  the  same  at  all  levels  in  the 
room,  but  the  difference  will  not  be  great  in  a  properly  heated 
room. 


PART   THREE 

EXERCISES   IN   ANALYSIS,   INTERPRETATION, 
INVESTIGATION,   AND   APPLICATION 


MOTIVE   FORCES   IN    DEVELOPMENT:   PHYSICAL 
WELL-BEING 

1.  Secure  data  bearing  upon  the  statements  made  below, 
and  if  these  are  found  to  be  accurate,  suggest  how  they  relate 
to  the  question  pertaining  to  the  connection  between  the  de- 
velopment of  the  child  and  the  evolution  of  the  human  race  : 

An  examination  of  a  child's  features  will  show  that  only  in 
a  general  way  are  they  built  upon  the  same  pattern  as  those  of 
his  parents.  His  forehead  is  less  prominent  than  theirs  with 
relation  to  the  face  as  a  whole,  while  the  chin  is  relatively  more 
prominent.  The  nose  is  not  so  well  defined,  the  features  lack 
individuahty,  except  possibly  in  respect  to  coloring;  and  even 
in  this  regard  it  is  difficult  to  tell  one  infant  from  another. 
Where  there  are  fifty  infants  in  a  maternity  ward  of  a  hospital 
they  have  to  be  tagged  or  otherwise  marked  in  order  that  the 
mothers  and  nurses  may  be  able  to  distinguish  them. 

2.  Do  you  agree  with  the  statements  made  in  the  following 
quotation  from  Preyer,  The  Mind  of  the  Child,  p.  XIV  ? 

"The  mind  of  the  new-born  child,  then,  does  not  resemble 
a  tabula  rasa,  upon  which  the  senses  first  write  their  impres- 
sions, so  that  out  of  these  the  sum-total  of  our  mental  life  arises 
through  manifold  reciprocal  action,  but  the  tablet  is  already 
written  upon  before  birth,  with  many  illegible,  nay,  unrec- 
ognizable and  invisible  marks,  the  traces  of  the  imprint  of 
countless  sensuous  impressions  of  long-gone  generations." 

3.  Speaking  for  biology,  Marshall  says  that  the  study  of  de- 
velopment ''has  revealed  tons  that  each  animal  bears  the  mark 

291 


292  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

of  its  aiucsliy,  and  is  tonii)i'llc(l  to  discover  its  parentage  in  its 
own  development ;  that  the  phases  through  which  an  animal 
passes  in  its  progress  from  the  egg  to  the  adult  are  no  accidental 
freaks,  no  mere  matters  of  developmental  convenience,  but 
represent  more  or  less  closely,  in  more  or  less  modified  manner, 
the  successive  ancestral  stages  through  which  the  present  con- 
dition has  been  acquired.  Evolution  tells  us  that  each  animal 
has  had  a  pedigree  in  the  past.  Embryology  reveals  to  us  this 
ancestry,  because  every  animal  in  its  own  development  repeats 
this  history,  cHmbs  up  its  own  genealogical  tree." 

Do  we  have  any  evidence  showing  that  in  his  mental  develop- 
ment the  child  "climbs  up  its  own  genealogical  tree"?  Cite 
data  for  and  against  this  view. 

4.  Comment  on  the  following  from  Lee,  saying  whether  the 
statements  made  are  in  accord  with  your  observations  and  ex- 
perience;  and  if  so,  how  the  transitory  character  of  particular 
games  and  plays  can  be  accounted  for : 

"Everyone  knows  that  a  growing  child  passes  through  suc- 
cessive phases.  The  games  that  most  delight  him  in  the  nursery 
are  scornfully  rejected  during  the  succeeding  period ;  the  ring- 
around-a-rosy  loses  its  magic  power,  the  hobby-horse  is  be- 
queathed to  a  younger  brother  or  turned  out  to  pasture  on  the 
rubbish  pile,  the  mud  pie  is  stricken  from  the  bill  of  fare.  And 
as  the  eight-year-old  scoffs  at  games  of  make-believe,  so  also 
the  budding  half-back  despises  tag  and  prisoner's  base;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  child  of  four  feels  no  need  of  competition 
nor  the  subadolescent  of  team  playing.  There  is  a  change  not 
merely  in  games  but  in  the  child's  whole  attitude  toward  life." 
Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  62. 

5.  What  are  the  bases  of  interest  in  a  game  like  golf?  Is  it  a 
child's,  a  youth's  or  an  adult's  game?     Explain. 

6.  Why  do  people  enjoy  looking  on  at  a  game  of  baseball, 
football  or  the  like?     Is  the  interest  in  a  bull  fight,  gladiatorial 


MOTIVE   FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT  293 

contest,  prize  fight  or  broncho-busting  round-up  based  on  the 
same  factors  as  interest  in  baseball,  etc.?  Explain  the  basis  of 
interest  in  each  of  these  activities. 

7.  Suggest  evidence  bearing  upon  McDougall's  views  as  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  regarding  the  driving  power  of  instinct : 

*'We  may  say,  then,  that  directly  or  indirectly  the  instincts 
are  the  prime  movers  of  all  human  activity ;  by  the  conative 
or  impulse  force  of  some  instinct  (or  of  some  habit  derived  from 
an  instinct),  every  train  of  thought,  however  cold  and  passion- 
less it  may  seem,  is  borne  along  towards  its  end,  and  every  bodily 
activity  is  initiated  and  sustained.  The  instinctive  impulses 
determine  the  ends  of  all  activities  and  supply  the  driving  power 
by  which  all  mental  activities  are  sustained  ;  and  all  the  complex 
intellectual  apparatus  of  the  most  highly  developed  mind  is  but 
a  means  toward  these  ends,  and  is  but  the  instrument  by  which 
these  impulses  seek  their  satisfactions,  while  pleasure  and  pain 
do  but  serve  to  guide  them  in  their  choice  of  means. 

"Take  away  these  instinctive  dispositions  with  their  powerful 
impulses,  and  the  organism  would  become  incapable  of  activity 
of  any  kind ;  it  would  He  inert  and  motionless  like  a  wonderful 
clockwork  whose  mainspring  had  been  removed  or  a  steam- 
engine  whose  fires  had  been  drawn."  McDougall,  Social  Psy- 
chology, eighth  edition,  p.  63. 

8.  Indicate  what  the  following  passage  from  Professor  James 
means  to  you  by  citing  concrete  illustrations  of  the  principles 
presented : 

''Deep  down  in  our  own  nature  the  biological  foundations 
of  our  consciousness  persist,  undisguised  and  undiminished.  Our 
sensations  are  here  to  attract  us  or  to  deter  us,  our  memories  to 
warn  or  encourage  us,  our  feelings  to  impel,  and  our  thoughts 
to  restrain  our  behavior,  so  that  on  the  whole  we  may  prosper 
and  our  days  be  long  in  the  land."  James,  Talks  to  Teachers, 
etc.,  p.  24. 


294 


MENIAL   DENELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


9.  Suggest  evidence  for  or  against  the  following  statements 
regarding  fear,  together  with  the  explanations  offered  to  account 
for  the  prominence  of  fear  at  the  age  of  three  : 

"The  period  of  greatest  fear,  though  it  varies  with  special 
experiences,  is  usually  at  about  three  or  four  years  of  age.  No 
matter  how  careful  parents  may  be  about  having  their  children 
frightened  by  stories  or  otherwise,  they  usually  become  at  this 
time  virtually  Httle  ' 'fraid  cats.'     Biologically,  this  is  the  time 


Fig.  68.  -   There  are  many  persons  who  cannot  live  in  any  definite  home;   they  are  con- 
stantly wandering  from  place  to  place.     (See  exercise  10.) 

when  they  begin  to  act  for  themselves  to  some  extent  away  from 
parents,  and  consequently  the  time  at  which  readiness  to  be- 
come frightened  and  run  home  would  be  most  useful."  Kirk- 
patrick,  Fundamentals  of  Child  Study,  p.  102. 

10.  What  impulses  are  responsible  for  the  nomadic  habits  of 
gypsies?  (Fig.  68.)  Do  all  persons,  especially  the  young,  feel 
these  impulses  ?     What  is  the  evidence  ? 

11.  Do  children  take  "naturally"  to  the  activity  shown  in 
Fig.  I,  p.  14?  Why?  Should  provision  be  made  so  that  all 
children  may  engage  in  this  activity? 


II 

MOTIVE   FORCES   IN   DEVELOPMENT:    SOCIAL, 
INTELLECTUAL   AND   ESTHETIC   WELL-BEING 

I.  Are  the  following  statements  within  the  facts  relating  to 
the  force  of  aesthetic  feeling  in  animal  and  in  human  Ufe?  Give 
evidences  in  support  or  in  denial  of  the  statements : 

''  A  human  lover  of  bird  songs  can  scarcely  resist  the  impression 
that  a  songbird  is  exercising  his  aesthetic  sense  in  making  his 
melodies  and  that  other  birds  must  be  affected  aesthetically  by 
them,  while  the  artist  has  much  the  same  feelings  regarding  the 
beauty  of  form  and  movement  in  bird  and  butterfly.  Experi- 
ments, however,  show  that  the  selection  of  mates  is  not  affected 
by  changing  the  color  of  the  wings  of  butterflies ;  hence  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  aesthetic  sense  is  very  prominent  in  these 
creatures  and  it  is  practically  certain  that  it  plays  no  part  in 
the  selection  of  mates  and  the  development  of  certain  types  of 
coloring,  as  Darwin  supposed  it  did.  The  same  is  probably  true 
in  the  main  of  birds  and  mammals.  The  brilhant  coloring  that 
has  been  supposed  to  play  an  important  part  in  the  mating  of 
animals  is  perhaps  better  explained  as  being  due  to  the  overflow 
of  energy  not  used  in  reproduction,  which  modifies  certain  physio- 
logical processes  and  sensory-motor  activities  so  as  to  produce 
bright  colors  with  beauty  of  form  and  grace  of  movement. 

"In  man  the  aesthetic  instinct  has  played  an  important  part 
in  mental  development  and  in  history.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  an  instinct  developed  beyond  the  necessities 
of  physical  survival  and  to  an  extent  that  makes  it,  in  many 

295 


296 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


instances,  stronger  than  the  desire  for  food  or  the  fear  of  danger." 
Kirkpatrick,  Genetic  Psychology,  p.  104. 

2.  What  does  Wordsworth  imply  in  his  well-known  phrase,  — 
"The  child  is  father  of  the  man"?  Does  Milton  express  the 
same  view  when  he  says  that  "Childhood  shows  the  man  as 
morning  shows  the  day"  ? 

3.  The  pupils  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration  (Fig.  69) 
look  forward  with  great  delight  to  the  daily  period  devoted  to 


lM( 


69.       All  I iiiklrin  arc  very  lond  of  throwing  stones  at  human  or  other  targets. 
(Sec  exercise  3.) 


throwing  stones.  What  is  the  basis  of  this  interest?  Should 
provision  be  made  for  all  young  persons,  boys  as  well  as  girls, 
to  throw  stones  ?     Why  ? 

4.  The  young  tramps  shown  in  Fig.  3,  p.  29,  are  "bumming" 
their  way  across  the  country.  What  is  the  force  which  impels 
them  to  forsake  home  and  friends  and  undergo  the  perils  and 
hardships  of  this  precarious  life  ? 

5.  Figure  4,  p.  31,  shows  the  pupils  in  the  Organic  Education 
school  at  Fairhope,  Alabama,  dramatizing  Indian  life.  What  is 
the  basis  of  children's  interest  in  tliis  kinrl  of  activity? 


MOTI\'E   FORCES  IN  DEVELOPIMENT  297 

6.  What  motive  forces  sustain  the  children  in  the  activities 
shown  in  Fig.  2,  p.  25? 

7.  Account  for  the  profound  interest  described  in  the  follow- 
ing: 

*'In  a  summer  resort  where  the  writer  was  a  visitor  the  past 
summer,  day  after  day  the  whole  male  population  of  the  hotel 
resorted  to  the  fishing  grounds.  They  paid  two  dollars  and  a 
half  a  day  for  a  guide,  seven  dollars  a  day  for  a  motor-boat,  and 
a  cent  and  a  half  each  for  worms.  Surely  a  stranger  uninitiated 
into  our  habits  would  have  been  amazed  to  see  these  returning 
fishermen  at  night  indifferently  handing  over  their  catch  to  the 
guide.  It  was  the  fishing  they  desired,  not  the  fish,  and  yet 
great  was  their  woe  when  one  large  fish  was  lost  in  the  act  of 
landing.  It  is  estimated  by  the  New  York  Times  that  on 
Sundays  and  hoHdays  when  the  weather  is  fine,  twenty-five 
thousand  people  in  New  York  City  go  fishing  at  a  minimum  cost 
of  one  dollar  each,  and  of  these  no  doubt  more  than  ninety-five 
per  cent  go  for  fun  and  not  for  the  fish."  Patrick,  Psychology  of 
Relaxation,  pp.  58-59. 

8.  Is  there  a  difference  between  native  capacity  and  instinct? 
If  so,  illustrate  the  difference  between  them  by  reference  to  an 
individual's  performance  in  such  fields  as  art  or  music  or  public 
speaking. 

9.  When  a  person  is  absorbed  in  a  subject,  as  in  the  study  of 
psychology  or  geometry,  what  are  the  sources  of  the  motive 
force  or  drive  which  sustains  him  in  his  interest  and  effort? 

10.  Some  writers  hold  to  the  view  that  all  one's  activities 
can  be  reduced  to  the  reflex  type,  —  sensory  stimulus  with  motor 
response.  Could  you  account  for  one's  interest  in  and  study 
of  mental  development,  say,  on  this  reflex  principle? 

11.  Which  makes  the  stronger  appeal  to  boys  from  ten  to 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  of  age,  —  football  or  baseball  ? 
Basket  ball  or  marbles  ?     Fishing  or  gambling  with  dice  ?    Check- 


298  MENIAL   DK\  ELOPMEN  T   AND   EDUCATION 

CIS  or  fox-and-gccsc r"     Aiiount    for  (Uft'crcnces  in    the    appeal 
which  these  games  or  sports  make. 

12.  Ilkistrate  by  concrete  examples  the  statements  made  by 
Kirkpatrick.  in  the  following  quotation  : 

''In  man,  with  motor  organs  capable  of  an  infinite  variety  of 
combinations,  the  constructive  instinct  has  had  a  wonderful 
development,  but  not,  as  in  the  case  of  animals,  toward  any  par- 
ticular kind  of  structure  characteristic  of  the  species.  The  con- 
structions of  the  spider,  the  bee.  the  robin,  and  the  beaver  are 
closely  related  to,  and  the  natural  outcome  of,  their  structure 
and  physiological  processes.  Plan's  motor  mechanism,  working 
in  no  fixed  way  but  by  varying  combinations  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  naturally  fails  to  produce  any  one  kind  of  structure  rather 
than  another,  except  perhaps  that  what  he  constructs  is,  like 
himself,  usually  bilaterally  symmetrical.  Each  individual  man 
has  the  general  instinct,  but  must  learn  what  to  construct  and 
how,  while  individual  animals  instinctively  construct  as  those 
of  their  species  have  always  done,  with  little  or  no  learning  from 
the  example  of  their  companions.  In  man,  both  the  construc- 
tive and  the  collecting  instinct  take  more  or  less  playful 
forms  and  develop  in  many  ways  not  demanded  by  the  neces- 
sity for  physical  survival."  Kirkpatrick,  Genetic  Psychology, 
p.  105. 

13.  In  the  following  table,  Colvin  and  Bagley  list  the  prin- 
cipal instincts  with  the  mode  of  expression  of  each  and  the  emo- 
tion felt  both  when  the  instinct  is  adequately  expressed  and  when 
its  expression  is  blocked.  Treat  this  list  as  follows :  (a)  Could 
the  hst  be  simplified  without  omitting  any  important  instinct? 
{b)  How  early  does  each  instinct  begin  to  function  and  how  long 
does  it  last  ?  (c)  Which  instincts  are  useful  in  present-day  life  ? 
Which,  if  any,  are  useless,  and  which  are  harmful?  {d)  Say 
whether  the  emotions  accompanying  the  expression  or  the  block- 
ing of  the  instinct  can  be  modified  by  direct  treatment. 


iMOTIVE  FORCES  IN  DEVELOPMENT 


299 


Normal  Feeling 

Emotion  Aroused 

Name  of  Instinct 

Physical  Exression 

ACCOMPANVINO 

BY  "  Blocking  "  of 

Adequate  Expression 

Adequate  Expression 

Adaptive 

' 

Imitation 

Copying    acts    of 
others 

Admiration 

Vexation 

Repetition 

Repeating      one's 
own  movements 

Play 

Spontaneous     ac- 
tivity 

Exhilaration 

Hysterical  ecstasy 

Inquisitiveness 

Prying,  exploring, 
taking  apart 

Curiosity 

Wonder 

Constructive- 

Putting  together 

Pleasure    of    con- 

I'erplcxily, elation 

ness 

struction 

Migration 

Seeking  new  sur- 

Novelty,    "Wan- 

roundings 

derlust  " 

Acquisitiveness 

Collecting, 
hoarding 

Desire 

Greed,  avarice 

Individualistic 

(a)  Self- Protective 

Combative 

Fighting 

Resentment 

Anger,  wrath, 
frenzy 

Retractive 

(i)  Shrinking 

Hiding 

Timidity 

Terror 

(2)  Flight 

Flight 

Fear 

Despair 

Repulsive 

Thrusting  away 

Dislike,  dread 

Disgust 

(b)  Self-assertive 

Self-assertion 

Strutting,    preen- 

Arrogance,    supe- 

Shame,    humilia- 

ing,    domineer- 

riority,      pride. 

tion 

ing 

vanity 

(c)  Antisocial 

Teasing  and 

Torture,  insult 

Contempt 

bullying 

Predatory 

Stealing,   destroy- 
ing 

Vindictivcncss 

Hate 

Shyness 

Withdrawal,  seek- 
ing solitude 

Self-distrust 

Fright 

Sex  and  Parental 

Sex 

Mating 

Conjugal  love 

Passion,  sex 
jealousy 

Protection  of 

Guarding, 

Parental  love 

Self-renunciation, 

young 

shielding 

grief 

;oo 


MENIAL   1)J:\  KLOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 


I      Normal  Feeling  Emotion  Aroused 

N'amk  of  lNsnN(-r      Physical  Expression  Accompanying  by  "Blocking"  or 

Adequate  Expression    Adequate  Expression 


^oiial 

Rivalry 

Competitive  acts 

Kmulation 

Jealousy,  envy 

Ciregarious 

Congregating  in 

Socia])ility,      kin- 

Homesickness, 

groups 

ship 

yearning  for 
companionship 

Cooperative 

Working  together 

Ix)yalty 

Remorse 

Altruistic 

Helping  others 

Friendliness, 

Sympathy,   pity, 

solicitude 

grief 

Rfligioiis 

Self-abascnicnt 

Subjugation 

Reverence,  humil- 
ity, veneration 

Awe 

.Esthetic 

Rhythmic 

Dancing,  song, 
chant 

Harmony 

Ecstasy 

Contemplation 

Admiration 

Rapture 

Til 

PRIMITIVE  MODES    OF   ADArXIVE    ACTIVITY;    TRIAL    AND 
SUCCESS;   IMITATION 

1.  Does  the  ancient  philosopher,  Lucretius,  give  a  correct 
picture  in  the  following  quotation  of  the  helplessness  of  the  infant 
as  compared  with  the  colt,  the  puppy  and  the  young  of  other 
animals  ? 

"An  infant,  as  soon  as  nature,  with  great  effort,  has  sent  it 
forth  from  the  womb  of  its  mother  into  the  regions  of  light,  lies 
like  a  sailor  cast  out  from  the  waves,  in  want  of  every  kind  of 
vital  support;  and  fills  the  parts  around  with  waiUngs,  as  is 
natural  for  one  by  whom  so  much  evil  in  life  remains  to  be  under- 
gone. But  the  various  sorts  of  cattle,  herds,  and  wild  beasts, 
grow  up  wdth  ease ;  they  have  no  need  of  rattles  or  other  toys ; 
nor  is  the  fond  and  broken  voice  of  the  nurse  necessary  to  be 
used  to  one  of  them." 

2.  How  long  is  a  chick  so  helpless  that  it  must  be  cared  for 
by  its  parents?  Speak  in  the  same  way  of  the  puppy,  the  calf, 
the  colt. 

3.  How  long  must  the  human  child  be  cared  for  by  its  parents  ? 
Is  there  any  significance  attaching  to  the  long  period  of  imma- 
turity in  the  human  species? 

4.  Would  it  be  an  advantage  or  otherwise  if  the  child  came  into 
the  world  ready  to  take  care  of  himself  in  most  respects?  Ex- 
plain. 

5.  Compare  the  length  of  the  period  of  immaturity  of  the 
young  in  different  races  with  the  relative  position  in  the  scale  of 

301 


302  MKN'IAL    I)i:VEU)PMENT   WD    KDUCIATION 

civilizaLi«)n  occupied  l)y  these  races.     Explain  the  facts  as  you 
find  them. 

6.  Is  it  a  benefit  or  is  it  a  hindrance  to  a  boy  to  be  thrown 
wholly  on  his  own  resources  by  the  time  he  reaches  the  age  of 
sixteen  ?     Is  it  ditTerent  with  a  girl  ?     What  principle  is  involved  ? 

7.  Is  there  a  tendency  for  boys  and  girls  in  America  to  indulge 
in  adult  practices  too  early?  If  you  think  so,  mention  some 
adult  activities  in  which  the  young  participate  too  early,  and 
give  the  principles  of  development  upon  which  your  answer  is 
based. 

8.  What  does  it  signify  for  an  individual,  boy  or  girl,  to  be- 
come blase  in  the  teens?  What  experiences  tend  to  make  boys 
and  girls  blase.''  Is  it  helpful  or  harmful  for  a  boy  or  girl  to 
become  "sophisticated"  early?     Why? 

9.  Comment  on  the  following  : 

A  boy  does  not  learn  to  smoke  because  he  enjoys  it  at  the 
start,  but  because  he  sees  his  fellows  doing  it.  Naturally,  if 
his  set  is  made  up  of  adults,  then  he  will  want  to  imitate  them. 
But  not  once  in  a  thousand  cases  will  a  boy  feel  that  he  ought 
to  be  a  member  of  a  group  of  grown  men,  having  the  same  priv- 
ileges and  responsibilities  that  they  do.  What  we  must  do,  then, 
is  to  get  the  sentiment  established  in  every  boy  group  that  smok- 
ing is  taboo. 

10.  Suppose  we  could  arrange  a  child's  environment  and  plan 
his  education  so  as  to  hasten  his  development  and  bring  him 
to  maturity  several  years  before  the  usual  age ;  would  that  be 
desirable?     Explain  your  answer. 

11.  Are  the  facts  in  the  following  paragraph  true?  If  so, 
state  the  principles  involved  : 

I  have  often  attempted  to  induce  very  young  children  to  attend 
to  verbal  forms  which  I  would  write  on  a  blackboard  or  on  a 
piece  of  paper,  and  which  older  children  would  "study"  with 
much  success.     But  while  a  three-year-old  child  would  follow  me 


PRIMITIVE   MODES  OF  AI)AI'T1\K   Ac'I'UlTV 


>5^0 


while  I  li'ds  inakin^  these  forms,  he  could  not  attend  success- 
fully to  the  forms  themselves.  Such  a  child  can  i)robably  catch 
a  general  impression,  as  of  a  white  something  on  a  dark  back- 
ground, or  vice  versa;  but  he  cannot  grasp  the  characteristics 
of  the  words  as  individual  things.  His  attention  is  not  suffi- 
ciently specialized  or  differentiated  for  this.  It  is  the  same  with 
spoken  language.  The  infant  long  responds  to  the  quality  of  a 
voice  —  the  timbre  and  intonation  -  before  he  can  attend  to 
articulate  language.  Again,  the  principle  holds  in  an  activity 
like  writing.  The  child  of  three  has  good  control  of  his  hand  in 
the  execution  of  an  elaborate  repertoire  of  manual  activities, 
but  one  cannot  teach  him  at  this  age  to  write  words  with  any 
success.  He  cannot  perform  the  speciaHzed  processes  required 
for  this  task. 

12.  Why  does  an  Irishman,  or  other  foreigner,  who  comes 
to  this  country  after  he  is  mature  always  retain  a  brogue?  Do 
you  think  such  a  person  actually  hears  our  words  exactly  as  we 
do?  Why?  Why  does  a  German  who  has  learned  to  write 
English  script  after  he  has  become  mature  always  show  traces 
of  the  German  script  in  his  English  forms? 

13.  When  one  hears  a  foreign  language  spoken  for  the  first 
time  the  words  seem  to  run  together,  and  the  speaker  appears  to 
speak  much  more  rapidly  than  he  actually  does  speak.     Explain. 

14.  Can  you  pitch  a  curved  ball?  Have  you  ever  watched 
an  expert  do  it?  Did  you  see  every  detail  of  his  movements 
in  pitching  the  ball  ?     What  did  you  see  ?     Explain. 

15.  Why  is  it  so  unusual  for  a  novice  to  follow  exactly  his 
gymnastic  teacher  in  the  execution  of  simple  exercises?  Why 
does  the  teacher  keep  showing  the  same  act  over  and  over  again  ? 

16.  Why  cannot  a  child,  who  has  a  very  wide  range  of  vocal 
power,  run  a  scale  the  first  time  he  tries  in  imitation  of  his 
teacher  ? 

17.  x\re  children  more  or  are  they  less  imitative  than  adults? 


304  MENTAL    I)K\  ELOl'MKNT   AND    EDUCATION 

Why?     Are  children  of  five  more  or  are  they  less  imitative  than 
children  of  ten?     of  fifteen? 

i8.  Observe  the  children  about  you  with  respect  to  their 
imitative  activities,  and  make  a  list  of  the  persons  and  actions 
most  commonly  and  persistently  imitated  at  dilTerent  ages  from 
five  onward.     Explain. 

19.  Why  does  a  child  of  five  not  imitate  all  that  is  going  on 
about  him?  Discuss  the  same  question  with  reference  to  adults 
in  different  vocations  and  different  social  environments. 

20.  Does  imitation  assist  the  individual  in  adapting  himself 
to  the  world?     Is  it  ever  a  handicap  to  him? 

21.  Are  some  children  more  imitative  than  other  children  of 
the  same  age?  If  so,  why?  Which  individual  has  the  advan- 
tage, —  the  one  who  imitates  very  freely  or  the  one  who  imitates 
less  freely  ?     Why  ? 

22.  Why  is  it  that  cjuitc  young  children  usually  try  to  imitate 
their  parents  in  all  they  do,  while  children  in  the  teens  often 
make  a  conscious  effort  to  avoid  doing  what  they  see  their  parents 
do? 

23.  Explain  the  following  : 

I  have  tried  the  experiment  of  drawing  three  lines  each  three 
inches  long  before  a  class  of  young  pupils.  Then  erasing  the 
lines,  I  asked  the  pupils  to  go  to  the  board  and  do  exactly  what 
I  did.  They  drew  lines  from  one  to  eight  inches  long,  and  some 
of  the  pupils  drew  as  many  as  six  lines.  None  of  them  apparently 
tried  to  do  precisely  what  I  did. 

24.  Explain  the  following  : 

When  I  began  school  I  persisted  in  writing  and  drawing  my 
copies  and  pictures  upside  down.  I  was  told  to  draw  some  ever- 
green trees  with  branches  pointing  downward.  The  teacher 
set  a  copy.  I  tried  my  best,  but  the  branches  of  my  trees  pointed 
upward.  These  were  the  kind  I  had  been  in  the  habit  of  seeing 
and  drawing  in  my  own  crude  way.     I  made  no  progress  in  my 


TRIMITRE  MODES  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  305 

drawing  until  my  teacher  suggested  that  I  draw  them  upside 
down,  which  I  did  with  greater  success. 

25.  In  the  case  of  a  pupil  mispronouncing  a  word,  do  the  correct 
and  the  incorrect  pronunciations  sound  the  same  to  him?  Ex- 
plain. 

26.  Why  does  a  novice  make  so  many  grimaces  when  attempt- 
ing to  reproduce  a  scale  sung  by  his  teacher? 

27.  What  is  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  a  pupil  will  study 
a  geometrical  figure  for  a  considerable  period  and  then  when  he 
is  asked  to  reproduce  the  figure  he  may  say :  *'I  can  see  it  in  my 
mind's  eye,  but  I  cannot  draw  it"? 

28.  If  a  person  had  no  occasion  to  learn  to  draw  or  write  until 
he  was  mature,  would  he  go  through  the  same  stages  in  learning 
to  write  as  a  child  does?     Explain. 

29.  Why  is  it  that  when  a  number  of  pupils  reproduce  writ- 
ing or  drawing  from  the  same  copy,  the  results  are  all  dif- 
ferent? 

30.  Apply  the  principle  in  the  following  quotation  to  the 
teaching  of  writing,  drawing,  playing  tennis,  etc. 

"It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  a  bicycle  rider  avoids  the  ditch  best 
by  keeping  his  attention  on  the  path.  The  nervous  energy  is 
automatically  withdrawn  from  the  channels  leading  to  the  muscles 
not  concerned  when  the  nervous  channels  to  the  appropriate 
muscles  become  more  open.  Directions  should  be  positive,  then, 
rather  than  negative.  The  pupil  should  be  shown  what  to  do 
rather  than  what  not  to  do.  The  only  exception  to  this  rule 
appears  when  the  pupil  has  fallen  into  bad  habits  which  need  to 
be  broken  up.  Then  it  may  be  necessary  to  call  attention  to 
the  thing  to  be  avoided."  Freeman,  The  Teaching  of  Hand- 
writing, p.  26. 

31.  What  is  the  value  for  adaptation  of  the  type  of  activity 
described  by  Colvin  and  Bagley  in  the  following : 

"The  individual  instinctively  copies  again  and  again  his  own 


3o6  MENTAL   DEVELOPMEN'l    AND   EDUCATION 

movements.  This  sort  of  imitation  has  been  termed  'circular 
activity.'  It  is  well  illustrated  by  the  young  child  in  his  acquisi- 
tion of  spoken  language.  He  repeats  over  and  over  again  some 
sound  that  he  at  first  utters  quite  spontaneously.  This  explains 
the  seemingly  meaningless  nia-ma-mas,  jxi-pa-pas,  da-da-das, 
and  other  similar  babblings  of  the  infant  in  the  second  half  year 
of  his  life."     Colvin  and  Bagiey,  Human  Behavior,  p.  30. 

32.  Are  the  statements  in  the  following  quotation  true?  If 
so,  explain  them  in  view  of  principles  of  development  that  have 
been  or  should  have  been  considered. 

"It  is  well  known  that  a  child  who  can  laugh  or  cry  perfectly 
in  response  to  the  proper  stimulations  may  be  unable  to  do  so 
voluntarily.  The  same  truth  applies  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
to  everything  that  the  child  does.  He  may,  under  proper  con- 
ditions, walk  or  stand  gracefully,  but  not  be  able  to  do  so  volun- 
tarily."    Kirkpatrick,  Genetic  Psycliology,  p.  30Q. 

7,7,.  Does  Wordsworth  indulge  in  poetic  license  or  does  he 
keep  well  within  the  facts  in  the  following  stanza  from  Intima- 
tions of  Immortality: 

"Behold  the  Child  among  his  new-born  blisses, 
A  six  years'  Darling  of  a  pygmy  size  ! 
See,  where  'mid  work  of  his  own  hand  he  lies, 
Fretted  by  sallies  of  his  mother's  kisses. 
With  light  upon  him  from  his  father's  eyes ! 
See,  at  his  feet,  some  little  plan  or  chart. 
Some  fragment  from  his  dream  of  human  life. 
Shaped  l)y  himself  with  newly-learned  art ; 
A  wedding  or  a  festival, 
A  mourning  or  a  funeral ; 

.\nd  this  hath  now  his  heart. 
And  unto  this  he  frames  his  song ; 
Then  will  he  fit  his  tongue 
To  dialogues  of  business,  love,  or  strife; 
But  it  will  not  be  long 


PRIMITIVE   MODES  OF  AUAlTiX  E  ACTi\  ITV  307 

Ere  this  l>e  thnnvn  aside 

And  with  new  joy  and  pride 
The  little  Actor  cons  another  part ; 
Filling  from  time  to  time  his  'humorous  stage' 
With  all  the  Persons,  down  to  palsied  Age, 
That  Life  brings  with  her  in  her  equipage  ; 

As  if  his  whole  vocation 

Were  endless  imitation." 

34.  What  type  of  intelligence  is  revealed  in  the  following  ex- 
periments upon  a  crayfish  ? 

*' A  simple  labyrinth  was  constructed  consisting  of  a  box  having 
a  small  compartment  at  one  end,  and  an  opening  at  the  other 
leading  to  an  aquarium.  From  the  open  end  a  median  partition 
extended  back  a  short  distance,  and  one  of  the  passages  so  formed 
was  closed  with  a  glass  plate.  The  crayfish  liberated  from  the 
small  compartment  was  provided  with  a  choice  of  two  paths  only 
one  of  which  would  lead  it  to  the  water ;  and  the  endeavor  was 
made  to  ascertain  if  the  crayfish,  after  a  number  of  trials,  would 
unerringly  choose  the  right  path.  The  crayfish  used  were  put 
through  a  number  of  preliminary  experiments  with  both  passages 
open  to  determine  if  they  had  any  tendency  to  go  toward  the 
right  or  the  left,  and  after  it  was  shown  that  either  path  was 
chosen  with  equal  readiness,  the  glass  plate  was  inserted  and 
the  animals  put  again  into  the  box.  In  the  first  experiment  the 
crayfish  took  the  correct  path  in  50  per  cent  of  the  trials,  and 
during  the  subsequent  trials  the  percentage  of  correct  choices 
gradually  rose  until  in  the  final  ten  trials  it  reached  90  per  cent. 
The  improvement  was  very  gradual,  as  is  indicated  by  the  follow- 
ing series  of  percentages  of  successful  trials  for  each  set  of  ten 
trips:  50,  60,  75.8,  83.3,  76.6,  90.  Although  slowly  acquired, 
the  habit  of  following  the  right  path  was  not  forgotten  after  an 
interval  of  two  weeks."  Holmes,  The  Evolution  of  Animal 
Intelligence,  pp.  184-185. 


3o8  MENTAL  DKNELOPMENT   AND   EDUCAIION 

35.  Conimcnt  on  llic  intt'lligencc  of  ants  as  iiidicaU-d  in  the 
following  experiment  reported  by  Sir  John  Lubbock : 

"In  order  to  test  their  intelligence,  it  has  always  seemed  to 
me  that  there  was  no  better  way  than  to  ascertain  some  object 
that  they  would  clearly  desire,  and  then  to  interpose  some  ob- 
stacle which  a  little  ingenuity  would  enable  them  to  overcome. 
Following  up,  then,  the  preceding  observations,  I  placed  some 
larvie  in  a  cup  which  I  put  on  a  slip  of  glass  surrounded  by  water, 
but  accessible  to  the  ants  by  one  pathway  in  which  was  a  bridge 
consisting  of  a  strip  of  paper  f  inch  long  and  i  inch  wide.  Having 
then  put  a  Lasius  nigcr  from  one  of  my  nests  to  these  larvae, 
she  began  carrying  them  off,  and  by  degrees  a  number  of  friends 
came  to  help  her.  I  then,  when  about  twenty-five  ants  were 
so  engaged,  moved  the  little  paper  bridge  slightly,  so  as  to  leave 
a  chasm,  just  so  wide  that  the  ants  could  not  reach  across. 
They  came  and  tried  hard  to  do  so ;  but  it  did  not  occur  to  them 
to  push  the  paper  bridge,  though  the  distance  was  only  about 
I  inch,  and  they  might  easily  have  done  so.  After  trying  for 
about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  they  gave  up  the  attempt  and  re- 
turned home.  This  I  repeated  several  times."  Holmes,  op. 
cit.,  pp.  2 1 1-2 1 2. 

36.  In  the  following  statements  is  too  much  claimed  for  imita- 
tion as  a  form  of  adaptive  activity? 

''The  child's  method  of  study  is  by  impersonation,  by  putting 
himself  inside  the  thing  he  wants  to  know,  being  it,  and  seeing 
how  it  feels.  What  he  is  doing  when  he  acts  mother,  horse, 
engine,  blacksmith,  bear,  is  finding  out  by  actual  experience 
what  these  most  interesting  playmates  really  are.  He  learns  the 
main  characters  in  the  drama  in  which  he  has  been  cast  by  assum- 
ing each  in  turn.  Whatever  personaHty  interests  him  into  that 
he  transmigrates  and  shares  the  exhilaration  of  its  deeds.  Later 
he  will  study  practicaHties,  will  criticize,  perceive  methods  and 
limitations.     Now  his  instinct  is  to  grasp  the  whole,  to  enter  by 


PRIMITIVE   MODES  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  309 

one  sheer  leap  of  intuition  into  the  heart  of  the  object  of  his  study 
and  act  out  from  that."     Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.   109. 

37.  Lee  in  speaking  of  rhythm  maintains  that  it  plays  a  large 
part  in  the  learning  of  any  act.  Does  he  overstate  the  case  in 
the  quotation  given  below?  Axe  his  statements  in  accord  with 
the  principles  developed  in  the  text? 

"It  (rhythm)  is  at  the  basis  of  every  form  of  skill.  You  can- 
not be  a  good  carpenter,  blacksmith,  pianist,  you  cannot  row 
or  paddle  or  play  golf,  until  you  have  formed  an  accurate  image 
in  your  mind  of  the  time  length  and  sequence  of  those  motions 
of  which  the  special  skill  consists.  To  learn  how  to  do  a  thing 
is  to  train  the  mind  and  muscles  not  merely  to  the  form  of  the 
required  movement,  but  to  its  swing  and  ictus.  The  skillful 
violinist  foresees  his  stroke  in  its  exact  emphasis.  The  good 
batsman  accents  his  swing  at  the  ball  with  an  extraordinary 
nicety  before  he  makes  it.  Rightly  to  perform  any  physical  act 
you  must,  as  we  say,  first  get  the  hang  of  it."     Lee,  op.  cit.,p.  157. 

38.  Are  the  principles  by  Woodworth  presented  below  in 
accord  with  the  principles  concerning  imitation  developed  in 
the  text? 

"There  exists  in  the  child  at  a  certain  early  age,  and  in  some 
degree  later  as  well,  a  tendency  to  imitate  a  drive,  easily  aroused 
towards  performing  acts  like  those  perceived  in  other  persons, 
especially  in  persons  that  possess  for  the  child  a  degree  of  prestige. 
The  imitating  child,  or  youth  or  adult,  is  not  a  purely  passive 
mechanism,  but  contains  a  drive  towards  imitation  that  can  read- 
ily be  aroused  to  activity.  The  child  likes  to  imitate,  this  liking 
being  part  of  his  general  social  orientation."  Woodworth, 
Dynamic  Psychology,  pp.  186-187. 

39.  Do  young  persons  take  "naturally"  to  the  kind  of  activi- 
ties illustrated  in  Fig.  5,  p.  46?  Explain.  What  are  the  effects 
upon  the  individual  of  engaging  in  such  activities? 


IV 

HIGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIXITY:  GENERALIZATION, 
SYMBOLIZATION,  IMAGINATION,  REASON 

1.  Do  primitive  people  rely  entirely  upon  the  trial-and-error 
method  in  adapting  themselves  to  their  environments?  Cite 
evidence  showing  whether  or  not  the  Indians,  for  instance,  em- 
ployed their  experience  conceptually  to  improve  their  situation. 

2.  Is  the  term  ''Free  Ideas,"  as  used  by  Colvin  and  Bagley 
in  the  following  quotation,  an  appropriate  one?  Give  detailed 
reasons  for  your  answer.  Does  any  animal  have  such  ideas  as 
are  described  in  the  quotation? 

"The  highest  form  of  learning  is  found  in  consciously  bringing 
the  past  experience  to  bear  on  the  present.  The  individual 
learns  how  to  conduct  himself  in  a  given  situation.  Later  a 
new  situation  is  presented  that  has  elements  similar  to  the  pre- 
vious situation,  and  knowingly  he  uses  the  experience  gained  in 
the  former  situation  to  aid  him  in  solving  the  new.  He  has  taken 
certain  'ideas  of  procedure'  gained  through  one  experience  and 
intelligently  applied  these  to  the  novel  conditions  in  so  far  as 
they  will  fit.  When  we  say  that  he  has  an  'idea  of  procedure,' 
we  mean  that  he  consciously  'knows  how'  certain  things  are  done. 
He  does  not  need  to  begin  entirely  anew ;  what  he  has  before 
done  comes  to  his  aid,  although  the  situation  is  not  the  same. 
This  abiUty  to  apply  consciously  elements  of  a  past  experience 
that  differs  in  essential  details  from  the  earlier  one  has  been 
termed  by  psychologists  the  power  of  forming  'free  ideas.'  The 
term  'free'  indicates  that  the  idea  in  question  has  been  detached 

310 


HIGHER   FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE   ACTIVITY  311 

from  the  situation  in  which  it  first  arose  and  can  be  used  under 
other  conditions."     Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Behavior,  p.  31. 

3.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  following  to  the  view  of  adap- 
tive activities  presented  in  the  text? 

"When  the  same  or  similar  conditions  in  the  environment 
are  repeatedly  presented  to  the  organism  so  that  it  is  called  upon 
to  react  in  a  similar  or  almost  identical  way  each  time,  there 
tends  to  be  organized  a  mechanism  of  reaction  which  becomes 
more  and  more  automatic  and  is  accompanied  by  a  state  of  mind 
of  less  and  less  awareness.  .  .  .  Clear  consciousness  does  not 
accompany  reaction  to  stimuli  when  the  issue  in  conduct  can 
only  occur  in  a  single  direction,  when  there  are  no  alternatives. 
Consciousness  is  an  expression,  as  it  were,  of  conflict.  It  arises 
in  response  to  stimuli  under  conditions  that  make  it  possible 
to  react  by  a  choice  of  a  line  of  conduct  in  any  one  of  many 
directions."     White,   Mechanism  of  Character   Formation,    pp. 

4.  How  does  one  gain  " wisdom "  in  any  field ?  Is  "sagacity" 
inborn  or  is  it  acquired  ?  How  does  a  sagacious  or  a  wise  person 
respond  to  a  situation  differently  from  a  mediocre  person  ?  Illus- 
trate by  concrete  instances,  and  explain. 

5.  William  James,  in  his  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,  p.  328, 
says  that  as  one  grows  older  he  loses  the  power  to  respond  to 
new  experience  in  new  ways.  "  Most  of  us  grow  more  and 
more  enslaved  to  the  stock  conceptions  with  which  we  have  be- 
come familiar  and  less  and  less  capable  of  assimilating  impres- 
sions in  any  but  the  old  ways."  Discuss  this  view  from  the 
standpoint  of  conceptual  adaptation.  Why  should  one  not  be- 
come ever  more  independent  of  the  "old  ways"  as  his  experiences 
increase  ? 

6.  Is  the  following,  reported  by  Professor  Lloyd  Morgan 
concerning  tlic  ingenuity  of  his  dog  Toby  in  opening  a  gate, 
typical  of  the  ingenuity  of  all  dogs? 


312  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

''The  gate  was  fastened  by  a  latch,  but  swung  open  by  itself 
if  the  latch  was  raised.  Whenever  the  dog  desired  to  make  his 
escape  he  put  his  head  between  the  bars,  lifted  the  latch  and 
went  out.  Such  an  act  might  of  course  have  been  the  result  of 
the  dog's  studying  the  hinges,  latch,  and  general  make-up  of  the 
gate,  and  concluding  that  if  the  latch  were  raised  the  gate  would 
be  free  to  swing  open.  Such  a  course  would  be  a  very  natural 
one  for  a  human  being,  but  few  would  consider  that  a  dog  would 
be  likely  to  follow  it.  The  dog  might,  however,  learn  to  open 
the  gate  by  watching  someone  do  it  and  then  imitating  him.  In 
this  case  the  dog  might  be  thought  to  conclude  that  'since  a  man 
lifted  the  latch  and  went  out,  therefore,  I  can  lift  the  latch  and 
go  out.'  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  dog  learned  to  make  his  escape 
in  neither  of  these  ways.  His  method  of  learning  the  trick,  which 
was  watched  from  the  beginning,  was  as  follows :  Being  placed 
in  the  yard  from  which  he  was  anxious  to  escape,  Toby  poked 
his  head  between  the  bars  of  the  fence  in  various  places  and  by 
chance  placed  it  under  the  latch  and  raised  it,  when  the  gate 
swung  open  and  he  scampered  out  on  the  street." 

7.  Is  an  animal  capable  of  dissociating  the  elements  of  expe- 
rience and  recombining  them  in  novel  patterns  in  the  manner 
described  by  Miller  in  the  following? 

"The  stream  of  images  which  is  constantly  flowing  in  the 
thinking  process  moves  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  associa- 
tion. But  it  has  been  one  of  the  functions  of  imagination  to 
free  the  elements  of  past  experience  which  are  brought  before 
the  mind  from  much  of  their  original  setting,  or  context,  and  to 
make  of  them  movable  elements  which  shall  be  free  to  enter 
into  new  associative  combinations.  Thus,  one's  image  tree  need 
not  necessarily  carry  with  it  the  thought  of  the  particular  place 
where  the  tree  grew,  the  fact  that  it  was  in  blossom,  or  that  there 
was  a  swing  under  the  tree,  although  all  of  these  may  have  been 
parts  of  one  original  perceptual  whole.     Not  only  can  the  image 


HIGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIMTY  313 

tree  be  taken  (uit  of  this  setting  and  given  a  new  conlexl,  but  even 
the  order  and  arrangement  of  its  own  parts  can  be  changed  at 
will."    Miller,  The  Psychology  oj  Thinking,  pp.  134-135. 

8.  How  would  you  explain  the  action  of  the  "small  dog"  re- 
ported by  Romanes  in  the  following  incident  in  which  a  large 
and  a  small  dog  are  involved  ? 

"One  of  them,  the  larger,  had  a  bone,  and  when  he  had  left 
it  the  smaller  dog  went  to  take  it,  the  larger  one  growled,  and  the 
other  retired  to  a  corner.  Shortly  afterward  the  larger  dog  went 
out,  but  the  other  did  not  appear  to  notice  this,  and  at  any  rate 
did  not  move.  A  few  minutes  later  the  large  dog  was  heard 
to  bark  out-of-doors ;  the  little  dog  then,  without  a  moment's 
hesitation,  went  straight  to  the  bone  and  took  it.  It  thus 
appears  evident  that  she  reasoned  —  '  That  dog  is  barking  out- 
of-doors,  therefore  he  is  not  in  this  room,  therefore  it  is  safe  for 
me  to  take  the  bone.'  The  action  was  so  rapid  as  to  be  clearly 
a  consequence  of  the  other  dog's  barking."  Holmes,  The  Evolu- 
tion of  Animal  Intelligence,  p.  250. 

9.  Give  at  least  one  instance  of  apparent  reasoning  on  the 
part  of  an  animal.  Give  all  the  circumstances  —  every  detail 
of  the  entire  performance  —  and  show  that  it  was  or  was  not  a 
case  of  genuine  reasoning. 

10.  Regarding  the  facts  of  human  nature  as  you  know  them, 
would  you  agree  with  Woodworth  that  the  ordinary  man  is  a 
creature  of  habit  with  but  little  originality  ?  Woodworth's  views 
are  given  below : 

"The  ordinary  man,  followed  through  his  day's  routine,  re- 
veals little  originality.  Surrounded  for  the  most  part  by  familiar 
objects,  he  perceives  them  in  the  old  ways  or  neglects  them  as  he 
is  wont.  He  meets  the  regular  demands  made  on  him  by  the 
regular  acts  that  he  has  learned  to  make.  Even  if  the  objects 
that  confront  him  are  somewhat  novel,  he  assimilates  them  to 
familiar  types  of  objects,  and  makes  little  response  to  their 


314  MENTAL   DENELOPMKNT  AND    EDUCATION 

novelty  ;  and  t-vcn  if  I  lie  conditions  lie  has  to  meet  arc  somewhat 
new,  he  comes  through,  as  best  he  may,  with  his  old  stock  of 
reactions.  The  inertia  of  habit  carries  him  along ;  and  as  he  has 
become  pretty  well  adapted  to  his  circumstances,  habit  carries 
him  along  pretty  smoothly.  Yet  some  embers  of  originality  are 
still  smoldering  within  him  and  can  be  fanned  into  life,  when 
conditions  are  right.  If  we  ask  what  are  the  conditions  favor- 
able to  arousing  the  factor  of  originality,  we  find  long-accepted 
answer  in  the  maxim  'Necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention.' 
Invention,'  broadly  interpreted,  covers  all  forms  of  original  be- 
havior. The  idea  is  that  routine  is  the  line  of  least  resistance, 
departed  from  only  under  the  spur  of  necessity.  Necessity,  to 
revert  to  our  favorite  mode  of  expression,  furnishes  the  drive 
for  original   activity."     Woodworth,  Dynamic  Psychology,  pp. 

136-137- 

11.  Analyze  the  more  important  subjects  taught  in  the  elemen- 
tary school,  and  indicate  what  type  of  response  to  situations, 
(sensori-motor,  sensori-central-motor,  central-motor),  is  pre- 
dominantly required  for  the  mastery  of  each  subject.  Does 
the  type  of  response  change  from  the  initial  steps  to  complete 
mastery  of  any  subject? 

12.  What  did  the  apostle  mean  when  he  said: 

"When  I  was  a  child  I  spake  as  a  child,  I  understood  as  a  child, 
I  thought  as  a  child ;  but  when  I  became  a  man  I  put  away 
childish  things." 

13.  On  p.  65  are  given  illustrations  showing  views  of  the 
brain  of  animals  and  of  man.  (Fig.  6.)  What  inferences  may 
be  drawn  therefrom  with  respect  to  the  range  and  complexity 
of  higher  forms  of  adaptive  activity  in  man  as  compared  with 
animals? 

14.  Is  the  distinction  made  below  between  the  scientific  and 
the  unscientific  method  in  dealing  with  a  situation  valid?  If 
so,  show  why  this  distinction  should  exist. 


HIGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  315 

"Like  the  lower  animals,  man  is  prone  to  accept  appearances 
as  true  to  fact.  In  other  words,  he  continues  to  use  the  animal 
method.  To  be  sure,  scientists,  as  we  have  said,  have  a  method. 
They  prepare  an  experiment  so  as  to  control  conditions,  and  they 
eliminate  one  factor  after  another  that  the  effect  of  each  in  the 
phenomenon  under  investigation  may  be  determined.  This  is 
man's  reconstruction  of  nature's  trial-and-error  method,  but  it 
is  too  slow  and  laborious  to  satisfy  the  unscientitic.  These 
people  want  immediate  results.  So  they  draw  conclusions  from 
limited  and  uncontrolled  observations,  and  take  much  pride  in 
what  'experience'  has  taught  them."  Swi(t,  Psychology  and  the 
Day's  Work,  p.  18. 

15.  Why  is  a  scientitic  person  so  much  more  "cautious"  than 
an  unscientific  person?  What  does  ''cautious"  as  used  here 
mean? 

16.  At  what  age  does  an  individual  begin  to  be  interested  in 
science  and  scientitic  method?     Why  not  earlier? 

17.  We  frequently  hear  men  say  that  "Man  is  a  thinking 
animal."     What  do  they  mean  by  this  phrase? 

18.  The  quotation  below  is  taken  from  Lees.  What  is  the 
value  for  adaptation  of  the  ability  to  foresee  the  outcome  of  a 
given  line  of  action?  Did  Napoleon's  genius  depend  mainly 
upon  this  abihty  ?  At  what  age  does  this  ability  begin  to  appear? 
Napoleon  is  quoted  by  Lees  as  saying  : 

"If  I  appear  to  be  always  ready  to  reply  to  everything,  it  is 
because,  before  undertaking  anything,  I  have  meditated  for  a 
long  time  —  I  have  foreseen  what  might  happen.  It  is  not  a 
spirit  which  suddenly  reveals  to  me  what  I  have  to  say  or  do  in 
a  circumstance  unexpected  by  others  —  it  is  reflection,  medita- 
tion." Quoted  from  Lees  by  Swift,  Psychology  and  the  Day's 
Work,  p.  53. 

19.  Rephrase  the  following  quotation,  and  illustrate  the 
principles  with   two  or   three  concrete  instances  in  which  the 


3i6  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

essential  characteristics  and  function  of  reasoning  will  be  ap- 
parent. 

'"The  great  problem  of  living  creatures  in  their  evolution  from 
lower  to  higher  forms  is  that  of  control  over  their  environment. 
That  form  of  control  is  most  valuable  in  which  the  individual 
is  able  to  manipulate  elements  of  his  environment  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  them  serve  as  means  to  the  realization  of  his  own  ends. 
The  conscious  processes  are  significant  in  the  life  of  the  organism 
on  this  very  account.  Reasoning  is  the  culmination  and. summa- 
tion of  all  the  conscious  processes  in  so  far  as  they  may  be 
conceived  as  control  phenomena.  All  thinking  essentially  is  con- 
structive in  its  nature.  As  it  approaches  that  stage  of  develop- 
ment and  organization  which  we  call  reasoning,  it  enables  the 
individual  to  deal  more  and  more  effectively  with  new  situations, 
thus  enlarging  and  expanding  his  field  of  control  over  the  world 
in  which  he  lives."     Miller,  op.  ciL,  pp.  291-292. 

20.  Restate  in  your  own  phrasing  the  principles  presented  by 
Miller  in  the  quotation  given  below.  Then  illustrate  the  prin- 
ciples with  instances  drawn  from  your  daily  experience. 

''The  logical  concept  is  the  result  of  reflective  reconstruction 
of  vaguer  concepts.  The  scientist  goes  over  his  experiences 
with  nut  trees  and  also  supplements  them  with  further  specific 
and  careful  observations.  On  the  basis  of  this  more  reflective 
study  he  constructs  his  concepts  of  chestnut  tree,  walnut  tree, 
etc.  In  these  cases  the  concepts  are  so  definite  and  so  carefully 
limited  in  the  mind  of  the  person  who  has  them  that  he  can  give 
definitions.  But  ask  the  average  boy  what  a  chestnut  tree  is, 
and  he  will  tell  you  simply  that  it  is  a  tree  that  bears  chest- 
nuts. And  ask  him  how  he  knows  that  a  certain  tree  is  a 
chestnut  tree,  and  he  will  probably  tell  you  that  he  has  always 
known  it,  or  that  everybody  knows  that  it  is  a  chestnut 
tree.  But  the  scientist  knows  exactly  the  meaning  which 
is  involved  in  the  use  of  the  term  ;   for  it  has  been  carefully 


fflGHER  FORMS  OF  ADAPTIVE  ACTIVITY  317 

and  reflectively  worked  out  by  specially  directed  observation  and 
study  with  a  view  of  determining  the  essential  characteristics  of 
the  thing. 

"  The  same  general  principle  holds  true  of  that  class  of  concepts 
which  we  more  commonly  call  laws  and  principles.  The  child 
may  in  a  vague  way  know  sometliing  of  the  law  of  development 
of  plants.     But  he  has  never  worked  out  that  law  reflectively 


Fig.  70. — The  operation  of  a  linotype  machine  requires  a  high  degree  of  technical 
intelligence.     (See  exercise  21.) 

and  might  have  great  difficulty  in  formulating  it  in  any  satis- 
factory terms.  But  the  trained  botanist,  having  gone  over  the 
whole  ground  very  carefully  with  the  explicit  intention  of  finding 
the  exact  law,  would  have' a  clear  and  definite  idea  of  it  which 
he  could  formulate  in  exact  terms. 

"Whether  we  are  dealing  with  class  concepts  or  general  notions 
in  the  form  of  laws  and  principles,  it  is  these  reflective  notions 
which  we  call  logical  concepts.  The  logical  concept  may  be  de- 
fined as  one  which  has  arisen  as  the  result  of  reflective  reconstruction, 


3i8  MKN'IAI.   DKVKLOPMENT   AND    KDUCATION 

tiiid  one  in  K'/iic/i  the  licmoits  of  mcaniiii^  luivc,  consequently,  been 
brought  fully  and  exf)lirilly  to  consciousness  and  have  been  formu- 
lated in  the  mind.''     Miller,  op.  cit.,  pp.  207-208. 

21.  Do  you  think  that  by  any  kind  or  degree  of  education  an 
animal  could  be  trained  to  operate  a  linotype  machine?  (Fig- 
70.)     Explain. 


V 

EXPRESSIONAL   ACTRITIES:    VOCAL,   FEATURAL, 
POSTUR.\L,  GESTURAL 

1.  Can  one  tell  from  the  color  of  the  cheeks  what  type  of 
emotion  an  individual  is  experiencing?  Does  age  make  a  dif- 
ference?    Explain. 

2.  What  is  the  difference  between  physiognomy  and  expres- 
sion ?  Show  the  difference  between  determining  one's  emotions 
from  the  expression  of  the  eye,  for  instance,  and  determining  them 
from  the  physio gnominal  characteristics  of  the  eye.  Has  physiog- 
nomy any  scientific  basis? 

3.  Do  young  children  who  are  exceptionally  bright  gesticulate 
more  or  do  they  gesticulate  less  in  expressing  themselves  than  do 
children  of  the  same  age  who  are  backward?  How  is  it  with 
persons  in  the  teens?  With  persons  in  the  college  age?  Ex- 
plain the  facts  as  you  find  them. 

4.  Do  girls  of  any  age  use  gesture  more  freely  than  boys  of 
the  same  age,  or  is  it  the  other  way  around?  Explain  the  facts 
as  you  find  them. 

5.  Mention  the  emotional  attitudes,  if  any,  that  will  always 
be  revealed  in  the  intonations  of  a  boy  in  the  teens.  Will  these 
attitudes  be  revealed  also  in  the  intonations  of  a  girl  in  the  teens  ? 
Is  a  girl's  voice  more  responsive  to  emotional  experience  than  a 
boy's  ?     Explain. 

6.  Is  the  free  use  of  gesture  of  service  to  pupils  in  the  ele- 
mentary school  in  the  expression  of  their  thought  ?  Is  it  of  serv- 
ice in  the  high  school?  Is  it  a  hindrance  in  either  place?  Ex- 
plain the  facts  as  you  find  them. 

7.  Why  do  young  persons,  both    in  the  elementary  and  in 

319 


320  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

the  high  school,  employ  featural.  postural  and  gestural  expression 
more  freely  on  the  playground  than  they  do  in  their  recitations? 
Why  is  there  such  a  contrast  in  these  respects  between  the  activi- 
ties of  the  playground  and  the  activities  of  the  schoolroom? 

8.  Does  the  study  of  elocution  assist  a  pupil  to  employ  featural, 
gestural  and  postural  expression  freely  in  his  everyday  needs? 
Was  the  olden-time  practice  of  "speaking  pieces"  on  Friday 
afternoons  of  value? 

9.  Does  Mosher  overstate  the  prevalence  and  the  value  of 
gesture  in  public  speaking  in  the  following  quotation  ? 

"The  person  who  speaks  in  public  should  make  gestures; 
he  misses  a  great  advantage  if  he  doesn't,  but  they  must  do  more 
than  serve  as  a  mere  outlet  for  nervous  energy,  more  than  furnish 
the  stimulation  which  usually  results  from  their  reaction.  They 
must  speak  distinctly  to  the  audience ;  they  must  help  to  illumi- 
nate, vitalize,  and  enforce  his  verbal  expression.  This  they  can 
do,  for  gestures  are  not  only  constantly  in  evidence  in  our  every- 
day life,  but  they  are  as  organic  a  part  of  our  inter-communica- 
tion as  is  speech.  One  has  but  to  watch  the  participants  in  the 
next  few  conversations  he  observes,  or  the  next  dramatic  per- 
formance he  attends,  to  be  impressed  with  the  truth  of  this  state- 
ment. We  are  continually  emphasizing,  locating,  describing, 
or  displaying  a  mental  or  emotional  state  by  means  of  gesture." 
Mosher,  The  Essentials  of  Effective  Gesture,  p.  2. 

10.  Do  the  most  effective  public  speakers  freely  employ 
featural,  postural  and  gestural  expression?  Describe  instances 
of  figurative  expression  actually  employed  by  a  public  speaker, 
and  say  whether  the  expression  was  an  aid  or  a  hindrance  in 
conveying  his  thought  to  his  audience. 

11.  Give  instances  of  figurative,  gestural  and  postural  expres- 
sion generally  employed  by  boys  in  the  teens.  Do  girls  use  the 
same  expression?  Is  this  expression  of  service  alike  to  the  per- 
former and  to  the  observers  ? 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES 


321 


i^2 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


12.  Docs  Mantcgazza  go  beyond  the  facts  in  referring  to  the 
universality  of  physical  expression  in  the  following  quotation? 
What    precisely    is    the    difference    between    conventional    and 

physical  expression,  as 
Mantegazza  uses  these 
terms  ? 

"Like  language, 
physical  expression 
presents  many  varie- 
ties of  form ;  but  it 
is  always  a  more  uni- 
versal  language. 
Words,  whatever  may 
be  their  origin,  have 
always  a  conventional 
meaning;  thus  they 
are  only  of  value  to 
one  who  comprehends 
them  and  follows  their 
meaning.  Spontane- 
ous physical  expres- 
sion, on  the  other 
hand,  is  the  language 
of  all  intelligent  men. 
and  extends  its  influ- 
ence beyond  the  do- 
main of  humanity ;  it 
is  comprehensible  to 
those  animals  who  most  approximate  to  us  by  the  develop- 
ment of  their  nerve  renters.  Say  to  a  dog.  to  a  child  who 
does  not  yet  know  how  to  speak,  or  to  a  foreigner  who  does 
not  know  our  language,  the  word  brigand,  at  tho  same  time 
smiling  benevolently   or   making   atTectionate    gestures;     these 


Fig.  72.  —  A  study  in  expression.     (See  exercise  17.) 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES 


3^3 


three  beings,  very  different  in  their  natures,  but  all  equally 
ignorant  of  the  sense  of  the  word  brigand,  will  reply  to  you  with 
an  expression  of  affection.  Say  to  them,  on  the  contrary,  the 
word  dearest  with  an  expression  of  hatred  or  a  threatening  ges- 
ture. You  will  see  them  shrink  with  terror,  attempt  to  escape 
or  utter  complaints.  This  very  simple  example  is  enough  to 
indicate  the  boundary  which  separates  conventional  language 


ion.     (See  exercise  17.) 


from  the  simple  and  elementary  language  of  physical  expression." 

Physiognomy  and  Expression,  p.  80. 

13.    Endeavor,  first,  to  find  a  good  photographic  illustration 

and  then  attempt  a  clear  verbal  description  of  each  type  of 

countenance  mentioned  below : 

The  misanthropic  countenance 
The  giddy  countenance 
The  sociable  countenance 
The  imperious  countenance 


The  melancholy  countenance 
The  pessimistic  countenance 
The  optimistic  countenance 
The  debased  countenance 


324  MENTAL   DE\ELOPMKNr  AND   EDUCATION 

The  audacious  countenance         The  ferocious  countenance 
The  suspicious  countenance         The  cruel  countenance 
The  defiant  countenance  The  meditative  countenance 

The  modest  countenance  The  inspired  countenance 

The  ascetic  countenance  The  ecstatic  countenance 

The  chaste  countenance  The  frightened  countenance 

The  hypocritical  countenance     The  pugnacious  countenance 
The  frank  countenance  The  contemptuous  countenance 

The  avaricious  countenance        The  ironical  countenance 
The  despairing  countenance        The  inquisitorial  countenance 
The  benevolent  countenance 

14.  The  phrenological  chart  shown  on  p.  80  (Fig.  7)  has  been 
and  still  is  extensively  employed  by  persons  who  profess  to  be 
able  to  "read  one's  character"  by  means  of  it.  Point  out  the 
difiference  between  determining  a  person's  traits  from  his  expres- 
sion and  trying  to  determine  it  from  a  phrenological  chart.  Is 
there  any  scientific  basis  for  phrenology? 

15.  Palmistry  or  chiromancy  has  been  and  still  is  extensively 
practiced  in  "reading  one's  character."  The  chart  shown  on 
p.  82  (Fig.  8)  shows  the  meaning  that  is  supposed  to  be  revealed 
by  the  various  mounts  and  Hnes  of  the  hand.  Is  there  any 
scientific  basis  for  palmistry?  Point  out  the  difference  between 
determining  one's  emotions  from  the  expression  of  the  hand  and 
trying  to  determine  them  by  the  method  of  palmistry. 

16.  What  intellectual  and  emotional  traits  are  revealed  in 
each  countenance  in  the  picture  on  p.  321  ?     (Fig.  71.) 

17.  What  emotional  and  intellectual  attitudes  are  revealed 
in  the  photographs  on  pp.  322  and  323?     (Figs.  72  and  73.) 

18.  What  intellectual  and  emotional  traits  or  activities  are 
revealed  by  the  expression  of  (a)  each  of  the  five  brows  shown 
in  Fig.  9,  p.  85  ;  (b)  each  of  the  seven  pairs  of  lips  shown  in  Fig. 
10,  p.  87  ;  (c)  each  of  the  nine  pairs  of  eyes  shown  in  Fig.  11,  p. 
94?     Give  reasons  for  your  answer  in  each  case. 


VI 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES:    GRAPHIC,   PICTORIAL 

1.  What  principle  relating  to  the  development  of  conven- 
tional language  is  illustrated  in  the  evolution  of  the  letter  M  as 
shown  in  Fig.  12,  p.  108? 

2.  Compare  the  typical  examples  of  pictorial  writing  given  in 
Figs.  13  and  13  a,  pp.  109 
and  no,  with  symbols 
which  children  would 
spontaneously  draw  to 
express  the  same  ideas. 

3.  On  p.  112  is  repro- 
duced from  Barnes  a 
drawing  made  by  a  pupil 
to  tell  the  story  of  "Jack 
and  the  Bean  Stalk." 
(Fig.  14.)  What  was  the 
age  of  the  pupil  ?  Is  the 
drawing  as  a  whole  and 
in  detail  a  faithful  por- 
trayal probably  of  the  in- 
tellectual processes  of  a 
pupil  of  this  age  ? 

4.  Herewith       are 
shown  typical  examples 
of  children's  spontaneous 
drawings  (Figs.  74,  75,  76)  grouped  according  to  themes.     Treat 
them  as  follows :  (a)  say  at  what  age  each  figure  or  story  was 

325 


Fig.  74.  —  Children's  spontaneous  drawings  grouped 
according  to  themes.     (See  exercise  4.) 


320    .       MENTAL   DEX  ELUl'MENT   AND   EDUCATlOiN 


S.  B 


r.    ^ 


EXPRESSIONAL  ACTIVITIES  327 

probably  drawn ;  (b)  say  whether  the  drawing  is  symboUc  or 
representative  or  both  ;  (c)  account  for  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic of  each  figure  or  story ;  (d)  say  whether  in  your  opinion 
each  drawing  is  a  faithful  portrayal  of  what  was  in  the  artist's 
mind  at  the  time  of  execution. 

5.  Professor  Barnes  read  the  story  of "  Johnny-Look-in-the- 
Air  "  to  pupils  from  six  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  they  were 
asked  to  tell  the  story  in  pictures.     The  story  is  as  follows : 

"As  he  trudged  along  to  school, 
It  was  always  Johnny's  rule 
To  be  looking  at  the  sky 
And  the  clouds  that  floated  by ; 
But  just  what  before  him  lay, 
In  his  way, 

Johnny  never  thought  about ; 
So  that  everyone  cried  out :  — 
'Look  at  Httle  Johnny  there, 
Little  Johnny-Look-in-the-Air.' 

''  Running  just  in  Johnny's  way, 
Came  a  little  Dog  one  day ; 
Johnny's  eyes  were  still  astray 
Up  on  high,  in  the  sky; 
And  he  never  heard  them  cry :  — 
'Johnny,  mind,  the  dog  is  nigh  I' 
What  happens  now  ?  — 
Down  they  fell  with  such  a  thump, 
Dog  and  Johnny  in  a  lump  ! 
They  almost  broke  their  bones, 
So  hard  they  tumbled  on  the  stones. 

"  Once  with  head  as  high  as  ever, 
Johnny  walked  beside  the  river, 
Johnny  watched  the  swallows  trying 
Which  was  cleverest  at  flvins.  .  .  . 


328  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

Johnny  walched  llic  bright,  round  sun 

Going  in  and  coming  out  — 

This  was  all  he  thought  about. 

So  he  strode  on  —  only  think  !  — 

To  the  river's  very  brink, 

Where  the  bank  was  high  and  steep, 

And  the  water  very  deep  ; 

And  the  fishes,  in  a  row, 

Stared  to  see  him  coming  so. 

"  One  step  more  !     Lo,  sad  to  tell ! 
Headlong  in  poor  Johnny  fell. 
The  three  little  fishes,  in  dismay. 
Wagged  their  heads  and  swam  away. 
There  lay  Johnny  on  his  face 
With  his  nice  red  writing-case ; 
But,  as  they  were  passing  by, 
Two  strong  men  had  heard  him  cry ; 
And,  with  sticks,  these  two  strong  men 
Hooked  poor  Johnny  out  again. 
Oh !  you  should  have  seen  him  shiver 
When  they  pull'd  him  from  the  river. 
He  was  in  a  sorry  plight, 
Dripping  wet,  and  such  a  fright !" 

In  illustrating  the  story,  one  pupil  drew  six  separate  scenes, 
while  two  others  made  but  one  scene  each.  What  was  the  age 
of  the  pupil  who  made  each  drawing?  Suggest  explanations 
of  the  differences  in  the  illustrations  of  the  three  pupils.  Com- 
ment on  the  value  of  the  drawings  as  indicating  the  events  in  the 
story  which  impressed  each  pupil,  and  the  logical  character  of 
the  mental  processes  of  each.  (Figs.  15,  p.  119 ;  15a,  p.  120 ;  156, 
p.  121 ;  16,  p.  124,  and  17,  p.  124.) 

6.  Do  the  young  naturally  acquire  an  interest  in  making 
beautiful  pictures  and  drawings?  If  so,  at  what  age?  Do  they 
naturally  like  to  make  mechanical  drawings?     If  so,  at  what  age? 


VII 
THE  DE\'ELOPMENT  OF  COORDINATION 

1 .  Just  what  is  the  distinction  between  muscular  power  and 
motor  coordination?  Illustrate  the  distinction  with  reference 
to  the  arm,  hand  and  fingers,  for  instance. 

2.  What  is  the  effect  upon  a  child's  motor  expressions  of 
requiring  him  to  perform  any  task  demanding  intricate  and 
precise  coordination?  Observe  his  facial  and  general  bodily 
attitudes  and  movements  when  he  is  making  the  attempt  and 
note  what  occurs.     What  is  the  explanation? 

3.  Are  forward  children  in  school  more  or  are  they  less 
"clumsy"  than  backward  ones?  Can  the  bright  pupils  do 
better  work  in  writing,  drawing  and  the  like  ?  Can  they  wrestle 
better?  run  faster?  jump  higher?  shout  louder? 

4.  Compare  bright  and  backward  pupils  with  respect  to  their 
advancement  in  articulation,  say  in  reading.  Can  you  detect 
a  difference  ?  If  so,  in  whose  favor  ?  What  principle  of  develop- 
ment is  involved  ? 

5.  Observe  children,  from  six  years  onward,  in  their  spontane- 
ous motor  activities.  Do  the  younger  children  generally  choose 
occupations  requiring  precision  and  elaborate  coordination  of  the 
accessory  muscles,  or  those  involving  mainly  the  fundamental 
muscles  in  a  comparatively  incoordinated  and  coarse  way  ?  Do 
older  children  indulge  in  activities  requiring  precision  in  control 
of  muscles,  especially  the  fingers?  Comment  on  the  facts  as 
you  find  them. 

6.  What  mutilations  occur  in  the  words  spoken  by  a  drunken 

329 


3.;;o     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

man,  such  words  as  '"horse,"   ''yes,"  'pudding,"  "Ypsilanti." 
et  al. !     Explain  the  phenomena  as  you  lind  them. 

7.  What  is  the  effect  of  fatigue  on  such  processes  as  fine  writ- 
ing, threading  a  needle,  and  the  like?     Explain. 

8.  What  influence  does  fear  exert  on  motor  cojirdination? 
Why?     Does  great  joy  exert  the  same  influence? 

9.  Does  strong  coffee  have  any  influence  on  precise  coordina- 
tion?    Docs  tobacco? 

10.  A  child  of  three  is  given  a  picture  of  an  apple  to  cut  out. 
He  grasps  the  scissors  firmly  and  slashes  away,  not  being  able 
to  cut  along  the  line  indicated.  His  body  is  tense  and  his  mouth 
works  in  unison  with  the  scissors.     Discuss  the  principle  involved. 

11.  Apply  the  principles  in  the  following  quotation  to  the 
teaching  of  writing,  drawing,  etc. : 

"The  adult  often  does  not  realize  that  a  movement  which  for 
him  is  rough  and  careless  is  for  the  child  precise  and  careful. 
It  is  easy  for  the  adult  to  realize  the  strain  of  attention  and  fatigue 
due  to  making  adjustments  which  are  to  him  very  precise,  such 
as  would  be  involved  in  making  a  fine  mechanical  drawing, 
adjusting  the  parts  of  a  watch,  or  doing  intricate  embroidery. 
Yet  the  expert  in  these  fields  can  work  all  day  without  undue 
fatigue.  The  feat  of  ordinary  writing  which  an  adult  can  carry 
on  for  hours  is  to  the  young  child  a  task  fatiguing  both  because 
of  its  newness,  and  because  the  degree  of  precision  which  is  re- 
quired is  high  in  relation  to  his  ability."  Freeman,  The  Teaching 
of  Handwriting,  p.  51. 

12.  What  does  each  statement  given  below  mean  to  you? 
Do  the  facts  of  development,  so  far  as  you  know  them,  justify 
each  proposition  presented  ? 

"The  development  of  the  child  is  crudely  and  imperfectly 
parallel  to  the  evolution  of  the  human  species.  Hence  the 
essential  vital  organs  are  the  first  to  become  efficient.  Their 
growth  and  development  are  aided  by  the  exercise  of  the  heavy 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  01-    COORDINATION  331 

muscles  of  trunk,  legs,  and  arms.  The  exercise  of  these  muscles 
stimulates  also  the  growth  and  development  of  the  fundamental 
nervous  centers  in  the  brain.  This  fortifies  the  nervous  system 
against  all  forms  of  nervous  weakness  and  collapse.  Nervous 
prostration  must  be  prevented  by  physical  exercise  in  the  kinder- 
garten and  lower  grades.  Here  the  foundations  of  power  must 
be  laid  deep  and  strong.  At  this  age  strength  is  more  important 
than  grace  or  beauty."     Tyler,  Growth  and  Education,  p.  46. 

13.  Viewing  the  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  the  develop- 
ment of  coordination,  which  types  of  work  shown  in  the  three 
illustrations  (Figs.  18,  p.  131 ;  19,  p.  132,  and  20,  p.  134)  can  be 
commended?     Which,  if  any,  should  be  condemned? 

14.  Considering  the  ages  of  the  children  in  the  picture  on  p. 
138  (Fig.  21),  is  too  great  a  demand  made  upon  coordination  by 
any  of  their  activities?     Explain. 


VIII 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION :  THE 
NEUROLOGICAL  AND  PSYCHOLOGICAL  VIEW 

1.  The  following  quotation  is  from  the  biologist,  Professor 
Jennings,  of  Johns  Hopkins.  Suggest  educational  applications  of 
the  principle  contained  in  the  quotation : 

''Training  is  even  harmful  when  it  comes  earlier  than  the 
development  of  the  power  which  it  tries  to  train ;  it  must  then 
be  classed  with  the  blights  which  cut  ofT  the  development  of  the 
powers.  To  take  a  simple  but  familiar  example,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  train  children  at  any  early  age  to  do  so  easy  a  thing 
as  to  sit  still;  they  have  not  developed  the  power  of  inhibition 
required  for  this.  Later  they  develop  this  power  and  have  no 
difHiculty  in  the  matter,  even  though  not  trained  to  do  it.  This 
is  a  type  of  what  occurs  throughout  development."  Jennings, 
et   al.,   Suggestions   of  Modem   Science   Concerning   Education, 

pp.   20-2I. 

2.  Preyer,  discussing  the  development  of  inhibition  in  his  son. 
Axel,  states  it  as  his  belief  that  the  inhibition  of  an  act  is  caused 
by  a  direct  effort  of  will  which  impedes  the  act.  Discuss  Preyer's 
view  and  give  concrete  instances  to  illustrate  your  own  view. 

3.  The  accompanying  illustration  (Fig.  77)  shows  the  changes 
that  occur  in  the  proportions  of  various  bodily  organs  and  mem- 
bers as  the  child  develops.  Suggest  evidence  showing  that  in 
the  development  of  the  mind  there  are  similar  changes  in  the 
proportions  of  the  various  powers,  traits  or  faculties. 

4.  What  inferences  relating  to  the  neurological  aspects  of 
inhibition  may  be  drawn  from  the  illustrations  found  on  page  141 

332 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION 


333 


(Fig.  22)  showing  the  appearance  of  the  brain  in  the  normal 
adult,  in  the  child  and  in  the  idiot  ? 

5.    The  picture  on  p.   144  (Fig.    23)  presents  a  typical  scene 


<5howinq  ihe  relative   proportions  o[  tWe  c[\\U  anci    acquit 

Fig.  77.  —  (See  exercise  3.) 

in  a  large  city.     Comment  on  the  situation  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  development  of  inhibition. 

6.   Are  the  games  shown  in  the  two  pictures  (Figs.  24,  p.  147, 
and  25,  p.  150)  of  equal  value  when  regarded  from  the  stand- 


334 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 


point  of  the  development  of  inhibition  ?     (live  reasons  for  your 
answer. 

7.  Discuss  the  common  saying,  —  "A  child  should  be  seen 
and  not  heard."  How  would  you  restrain  children  who  ap- 
parently talk  too  much,  either  in  the  home  or  in  the  school  ? 

8.  Compare  pupils  who  are  quite  active  in  a  motor  way 
with  pupils  of  the  same  age  who  are  very  quiet.  Which  group 
is  the  ''brighter'"?  Which  group  stands  the  higher  in  the  work 
of  the  school  ?     Why  ? 

9.  Describe  a  school  in  Avhich  the  teacher  attempts  to  sup- 
press all  motor  activity.  Do  you  think  the  pupils  progress  un- 
usually rapidly  in  their  studies?  Do  they  enjoy  their  work? 
Is  their  behavior  satisfactory  ? 

10.  Is  there  any  objection  to  keeping  children  after  school 
as  a  punishment  for  inattention  to  lessons  during  school  hours? 
Is  this  a  "natural"  penalty  for  indifTerence  to  the  work  of  the 
school  ? 

11.  Are  the  following  statements  true?  If  so,  suggest  how 
the  practical  problem  involved  can  be  solved. 

Many  persons  who  realize  that  a  child  must  see,  hear,  touch, 
taste  and  smell  all  the  objects  around  him  in  order  that  he 
may  come  to  understand  them  do  not  appreciate  that  the  hunger 
to  touch  things  is  probably  more  acute  than  any  other  kind  of 
hunger.  How  often  one  hears  parents  and  policemen  and  guards 
at  museums  say  to  children,  —  "Don't  you  touch  that.  Can't 
you  keep  your  hands  off  things?  I  told  you  if  you  touched 
any  of  those  things  again  I  would  punish  you,"  and  so  on.  But 
a  child  will  touch  objects,  even  in  the  face  of  certain  punishment, 
because  his  hunger  for  touch  sensations  is  so  overpowering 
that  he  cannot  restrain  it. 

12.  Suggest  an  answer  to  each  question  in  the  following  com- 
munication from  a  teacher,  with  reasons  therefor : 

""I  have  been  much  interested  in  trying  to  account  for  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  335 

mischievousness  of  some  of  my  pupils.  They  come  from  good 
homes;  but  they  'raise  cain'  all  the  time.  Is  this  due  to  what 
is  called  reversion?  Are  these  children  evilly  inclined  by  nature 
or  is  it  due  to  lack  of  proper  training  in  the  home?  If  I  were 
certain  of  the  cause  of  wrong  doing,  I  might  be  able  to  remedy 
it." 

13.  Comment  on  the  method  of  treating  children  indicated 
in  the  following  incident : 

I  heard  a  parent  talking  to  two  children  who  were  travel- 
ing with  her  on  a  train.  They  were  probably  six  and  eight  years 
of  age  respectively.  The  windows  were  all  open  because  the 
weather  was  hot.  The  children  were  striving  constantly  to 
put  their  heads  a  little  way  out  of  a  window.  They  were  fas- 
cinated by  this  novel  experience.  They  felt  the  air  on  their 
faces  and  they  saw  the  objects  fly  past  them  at  great  speed. 
But  the  mother  was  incessantly  commanding  them  to  sit  down 
and  behave  themselves.  Her  voice  was  harsh,  rough  and 
decidedly  unfriendly.  She  took  hold  of  the  children  several 
times  and  shook  them  and  threatened  them  with  more  painful 
treatment  if  they  did  not  obey  her. 

14.  Do  children  who  are  leaders  in  their  studies  develop 
motor  restraint  sooner  than  duller  children,  or  is  it  the  other 
way  around  ?     Give  reasons  for  your  answer. 

15.  Comment  on  this  boy's  forgetfulness  and  his  father's 
method  of  making  him  thoughtful : 

"My  brother,  nine  years  old,  plays  out  of  doors  constantly, 
and  he  is  ravenously  hungry  at  meal  time.  He  has  been  told  a 
hundred  and  fifty  times  to  brush  his  hair  before  coming  to  the 
table  and  still  at  nearly  every  meal  father  has  to  say,  —  '  Isn't 
there  something  you  should  have  done?'  The  answer  always 
is,  —  'Oh,  papa,  I  forgot.'  " 

16.  Explain  the  following  type,  and  suggest  methods  of 
training : 


336  MKXIAI.    DFAELOPMENT   AM)    EDUCATION 

In  every  home  in  which  there  are  se\eral  children,  there  is 
likely  to  be  a  more  or  less  marked  irresponsible  one.  It  is  al- 
ways possible  to  tell  when  such  a  boy  has  been  in  the  house ; 
he  leaves  a  trail  after  him.  He  has  cut  his  finger,  and  has 
used  cloths  to  remove  the  blood,  ^'ou  can  track  him  around 
the  house  by  the  cloths  he  has  dropped  on  the  floor.  He  has 
changed  his  clothes  to  go  to  a  party,  and  one  can  find  every- 
thing he  has  taken  off  right  where  it  dropped  when  he  shed  it. 
He  reads  the  paper  before  any  other  member  of  the  household, 
and  he  leaves  the  various  sections  scattered  all  over  the  room. 
He  takes  tools  to  fix  his  boat,  and  when  the  father  wishes  to 
use  these  same  tools  he  cannot  find  them.  He  climbs  a  tree 
and  forgets  to  remove  his  new  coat,  which  is  much  the  worse 
for  wear  w'hen  he  returns  to  the  house.  When  he  goes  to  the 
pantry  to  reheve  his  hunger  he  consumes  everything  he  can  find, 
whether  or  not  it  has  been  specially  prepared  for  the  approach- 
ing meal.  He  wanders  around  in  sloppy  weather  wherever 
his  impulse  takes  him,  and  he  comes  in  with  wet  feet.  He  pulls 
off  his  shoes  and  socks  in  the  parlor  or  living  room,  and  sits 
around  en  desJiahiUc  regardless  of  the  other  members  of  the 
family.  He  gets  absorbed  in  a  book  and  forgets  all  about  his 
studies,  and  his  teacher  reports  him  as  negligent.  He  goes 
out  just  before  a  meal,  and  comes  back  after  everyone  has 
finished,  much  to  the  annoyance  of  the  servants. 

17.  Select  at  least  three  persons,  men  or  women,  who  are 
generally  regarded  as  leaders  in  their  respective  fields  of  ac- 
tivity, and  find  out  whether  they  were  reflective  and  studious 
or  executive  and  dynamic  during  childhood  and  youth. 

18.  Would  such  a  school  as  is  described  below  be  of  ser\'ice 
in  every  city?  Why?  Would  it  be  of  service  also  in  country 
districts?     Why? 

There  is  a  school  for  discontented  school  children  in  Kansas 
City.    Missouri,    called    the    "Lathrop    Industrial    School."     It 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  337 

was  organized  for  the  purpose  of  educating  children  over  four- 
teen years  of  age  who  have  reached  the  fifth  grade  and  find  the 
work  of  the  regular  school  distasteful.  The  school  proceeds 
on  the  theory  that  in  many  cases  the  distaste  of  these  children 
for  school  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  ordinary  studies  are  not 
adapted  to  their  particular  needs.  Such  pupils  frequently 
appear  "backward"  or  lazy,  when  in  reality  all  they  need  is  a 
different  form  of  educational  activity.  Accordingly,  Lathrop 
school  gives  them  what  is  known  as  "prevocational"  training. 
Courses  in  bench  woodworking,  shop-drawing,  pattern-mak- 
ing, printing,  carpentry  and  shop  electricity  are  provided  for 
the  boys ;  cooking,  sewing,  millinery  and  embroidery  for  the 
girls. 

19.  Sometimes  one  sees  pupils  who  habitually  sit  in  their 
seats  during  recesses  studying  their  lessons ;  they  never  take 
part  in  the  play  activities  of  their  classmates.  Should  any- 
thing be  done  to  cause  such  pupils  to  play  at  recesses?  What 
principles  are  involved  ? 


IX 

THE   DE\^LOPMENT   OF   INHIBITION:    RESTRAINING 

FORCES 

1 .  Should  girls  be  given  as  much  freedom  for  motor  activities 
as  boys  ?  At  what  age  should  they  begin  to  be  restrained  ?  How 
can  they  be  trained  best  in  proper  restraint  ? 

2.  Are  parents  wise  in  compelling  their  children  to  restrain 
themselves  when  company  is  present  for  fear  of  having  them 
thought  ill-mannered?  Will  the  children  be  better-mannered 
in  the  teens  if  they  are  trained  to  observe  adult  proprieties  in 
the  early  years  ? 

3.  Comment  on  the  following : 

"H —  while  quite  young  was  compelled  to  attend  many  lec- 
tures. He  had  to  sit  quietly  without  moving  a  finger  even  while 
the  lecturer  talked  on  subjects  far  beyond  his  comprehension. 
Now  that  he  has  grown  older,  and  is  in  college,  he  finds  it  very 
difficult  to  sit  quietly  at  a  lecture ;  he  is  always  nervous  and 
fidgety." 

Did  his  experience  as  a  child  probably  have  any  influence  on 
his  present  dislike  of  lectures  ? 

4.  Develop  a  general  principle  stating  when  a  person  would 
be  ideally  restrained  in  respect  to  laughter,  freedom  of  speech, 
dress,  indulgence  in  sweets,  tea  and  coffee,  tobacco,  dancing,  etc. 
Could  one  be  too  restrained  in  respect  to  any  or  all  of  these  mat- 
ters ? 

5.  Is  the  development  of  restraint  in  the  young  helped  or  is 
it  hindered  by  permitting  them  to  participate  in  street  festivals, 
mardi  gras  celebrations,  masque-balls,  New  Year's  Eve  festivities 
and  the  like? 

338 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  339 

6.  Have  you  known  a  person  to  develop  self-restraint  without 
very  much  being  said  to  him  directly  about  the  matter?  If  so, 
just  what  experiences  did  he  have  that  brought  about  self-con- 
trol? 

7.  Many  people  believe  that  a  school  is  well  governed  when 
pupils  sit  quietly  in  their  seats,  memorizing  their  lessons.  Is 
this  your  view?  If  not,  say  when  a  school  is  well  disciplined 
and  why. 

8.  Should  a  pupil  exercise  greater  restraint  in  the  high  school 
than  he  did  in  the  elementary  school  ?  Give  the  principle  upon 
which  your  answer  is  based. 

9.  Is  it  wise  to  compel  children  under  twelve  to  attend  church 
and  sit  through  sermons  which  they  do  not  comprehend?  Is 
there  any  connection  between  compulsory  church  attendance 
in  the  early  years  and  attendance  or  non-attendance  in  later 


years 


10.  One  often  hears  college  students  say,  —  "Well,  you  know 
we  went  out  on  that  picnic  and  we  had  the  best  time ;  we  acted 
just  like  'kids'  again!"  Discuss  the  psychological  and  edu- 
cational significance  of  such  experiences. 

11.  What  inferences  relating  to  the  development  of  self- 
restraint  may  be  drawn  from  the  illustration  (Fig.  22,  p.  141) 
showing  views  of  the  brain  of  a  normal  adult,  of  a  child  and  of 
an  idiot? 

12.  Suggest  explanations  of  the  traits  of  the  two  types  of  boys 
described  below  and  indicate  how  each  should  be  treated : 

(a)  "I  have  a  pupil  thirteen  years  of  age  who  cannot  sit  still 
in  his  seat  for  a  moment  at  a  time.  He  is  shifting  about,  knock- 
ing his  feet  against  the  desk,  turning  around  and  looking  at 
people  and  whispering  to  them  whenever  he  gets  a  chance, '  fuss- 
ing' with  various  articles  which  he  brings  to  school  in  his  pockets, 
and  so  on.  He  is  not  getting  along  well  in  his  work ;  he  cannot 
give  his  attention  for  more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time  to  any- 


340     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  ANT)  EDUCATION 

thing.  He  gets  along  fairly  well  outside  of  school  because  he 
is  alert  and  responsive ;  he  is  as  good  as  any  one  in  his  group  in 
play." 

(b)  "I  have  a  boy  in  my  school  who  does  all  his  work  in  the 
school  more  readily  than  his  classmates,  and  when  he  finishes 
a  lesson  he  gets  into  mischief  very  easily.  He  moves  around 
in  his  seat,  makes  a  good  deal  of  noise  by  knocking  his  feet 
against  the  desk,  dropping  his  books,  communicating  with  the 
pupils  around  him,  and  so  on." 

13.  Are  the  following  statements  true?  If  so,  suggest  a  pro- 
gram for  training  the  young  which  will  obviate  the  difficulty 
complained  of. 

A  large  part  of  the  conflict  between  parents  and  teachers 
and  their  boys  in  modern  life  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  former 
supervise  the  latter  too  much.  This  difficulty  is  increasing 
with  the  development  of  urban  life.  In  earlier  times,  when  the 
majority  of  children  lived  in  the  country,  they  were  permitted 
to  shift  for  themselves  a  considerable  part  of  each  day.  They 
could  be  out  of  doors  away  from  adults  for  hours  at  a  stretch. 
In  those  days  parents  were  always  so  busy  that  they  did  not  have 
much  leisure  to  follow  their  boys  around  and  tell  them  what 
they  should  or  should  not  do.  But  an  increasing  proportion  of 
children  who  Hve  in  the  city  have  almost  no  time  to  themselves. 
They  are  under  the  eye  and  the  voice  of  grown  persons  from  the 
time  they  get  up  in  the  morning  until  they  retire  at  night.  And 
the  typical  adult  cannot  be  with  a  boy  of  any  age  without  con- 
stantly giving  him  instruction  or  exhorting  him  or  commanding 
him  or  *  bossing  '  him  in  one  way  or  another.  A  large  percentage 
of  boys  who  are  regarded  as  obstinate,  disobedient  or  unman- 
ageable are  oversupervised.  They  fall  into  the  way  of  thinking 
that  no  adult  can  be  near  them  without  commanding  them  or 
forbidding  them  ;  so  they  acquire  a  fixed  attitude  of  antagonism 
and  resistance  toward  those  in  authority. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  INHIBITION  341 

14.  Discuss  the  following  testimonies  from  inmates  of  state 
prisons : 

(a)  "Sending  a  boy  who  has  committed  some  crime  to  a 
juvenile  institution  ruins  him.  He  will  learn  more  crookedness 
in  one  month  in  a  house  of  refuge  than  he  would  in  all  his  life  on 
the  streets,  and  going  from  a  house  of  refuge  to  a  reformatory  is 
like  going  from  a  public  school  to  a  high  school." 

(b)  ''I  was  sent  to  an  industrial  school  for  truancy  and  was 
kept  there  seven  years.  When  you  send  a  child  to  a  reform 
school  you  make  a  criminal  out  of  him,  for  what  badness  he  does 
not  know  he  will  soon  learn  while  there.  I  have  been  serving 
time  ever  since." 

(c)  "I  attended  school  very  httle.  I  was  interested  in  stories 
of  crimes  and  thieves.  At  thirteen  I  was  sent  for  one  year  to 
a  house  of  refuge.  At  seventeen  I  was  arrested  for  petty  larceny. 
I  was  herded  with  a  lot  of  criminals  and  sent  to  a  penitentiary 
for  six  months.  If  I  had  not  been  sent  to  the  house  of  refuge 
it  would  have  helped  me  to  live  right.  I  learned  more  about 
thieving  in  one  year  than  I  could  learn  out  of  books  in  twenty 
years.  Keep  young  boys  away  from  homes  and  refuges.  The 
causes  of  my  crime  have  been  cigarettes,  evil  companions,  trashy 
books  and  no  idea  of  the  seriousness  of  what  I  was  doing." 

(d)  "The  best  thing  to  do  with  a  boy  when  he  starts  to  steal 
is  to  take  him  to  a  near-by  lot  and  shoot  him.  If  that  had  been 
done  to  me  I'd  be  better  off  to-day.  All  reformatories  are  noth- 
ing but  schools  of  crime."  Schoff,  The  Wayward  Child, 
pp.  191-195- 

15.  Treat  the  quotation  given  below  as  follows  :  first,  give 
evidences  for  or  against  the  soundness  of  the  propositions  set 
forth ;  second ,  suggest  how  the  traits  mentioned  should  be  pro- 
vided for  in  educational  work ;  third,  show  how  the  views  pre- 
sented relate  to  the  problem  of  developing  self-restraint  in  the 
young : 


342  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

''The  power  to  throw  with  accuracy  and  speed  was  once 
pivotal  for  survival,  and  non-throwers  were  eliminated.  Those 
who  could  throw  unusually  well  best  overcame  enemies,  killed 
game,  and  sheltered  family.  The  nervous  and  muscular  systems 
are  organized  with  certain  definite  tendencies  and  have  behind 
of  them  a  racial  setting.  So  running  and  dodging  with  speed 
and  endurance,  and  hitting  with  a  club  were  also  basal  to  hunting 
and  fighting.  Now  that  the  need  of  these  is  less  urgent  for 
utiUtarian  purposes,  they  are  still  necessary  for  perfecting  the 
organism.  This  makes,  for  instance,  baseball  racially  familiar, 
because  it  represents  activities  that  were  once  and  for  a  long  time 
necessary  for  survival.  We  inherit  tendencies  of  muscular  co- 
ordination that  have  been  of  great  racial  utility.  The  best 
athletic  sports  and  games  are  composed  of  these  racially  old 
elements,  so  that  phylogenetic  muscular  history  is  of  great  im- 
portance. Why  is  it  that  a  city  man  so  loves  to  sit  all  day  and 
fish?  It  is  because  this  interest  dates  back  to  time  immemorial. 
We  are  the  sons  of  fishermen,  and  early  life  was  by  the  water's 
side,  and  this  is  our  food  supply.  This  explains  why  certain 
exercises  are  more  interesting  than  others."  Hall,  Youth:  Us 
Education,  Regimen,  and  Hygiene,  pp.  79-80. 

16.  Compare  the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  work  on 
a  farm  for  boys  in  the  early  teens  with  work  in  a  factory  or  in  a 
store. 

17.  When  a  girl  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  years  of  age  is  drop- 
ping behind  in  her  school  work  and  taking  to  the  streets,  will  it 
help  her  to  punish  her  or  to  attempt  to  shame  her  into  decent 
behavior?  If  a  girl  has  become  an  offender  by  the  age  of  six- 
teen, will  it  cure  her  to  send  her  to  a  penal  institution  where  she 
will  be  made  to  work  ? 

18.  Give  evidence  bearing  either  positively  or  negatively 
upon  the  following  statements  : 

Recent   investigations  indicate   that  good  behavior  depends 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF   INHIBITION  343 

largely  on  intelligence.  If  an  individual  stops  growing  mentally 
at  fourteen,  the  chances  are  that  by  the  time  he  is  nineteen  or 
twenty  he  will  be  an  offender  against  law  or  morality  if  he  lives 
in  a  community  where  life  is  complex,  and  self-restraint  is  re- 
quired.    This  is  particularly  true  of  girls. 

19.  Frequently  one  hears  a  parent  or  teacher  say  that  a  boy 
or  a  girl  has  undergone  a  marked  change  for  the  worse  in  charac- 
ter during  the  early  teens.  Mention  the  chief  kinds  of  delin- 
quency that  are  likely  to  occur  at  this  time,  and  suggest  explana- 
tions and  methods  of  avoiding  deterioration  in  character. 


X 

ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR   TO   ADOLESCENCE 

1.  Comment  on  the  following  quotation  from  Swift,  pointing 
out  especially  whether  the  trait  described  is  confined  to  the  ado- 
lescent age  : 

"The  principal  of  a  New  York  school  puts  truants  under  the 
care  of  active  citizens  of  the  school  republic  who  formerly  were 
themselves  truants.  The  boys  know  how  to  find  runaways, 
and  when  once  truants  have  been  discovered,  former  delinquents 
are  skilful  in  handling  them.  Besides,  there  is  a  sympathetic 
bond  between  the  two  that  appeals  to  the  truant.  The  feeling 
that  authority  and  force  arc  unfairly  used,  which  arises  so  easily 
in  police  control  of  truancy,  is  absent."  Swift,  Youth  and  the 
Race,  p.  53- 

2.  Comment  on  the  following  statement  from  Starr,  giving 
attention  principally  to  the  suitability  for  adolescents  of  the 
suggestions  made  : 

"Over-pugnacity  is  certainly  a  bad  trait,  but  a  cowardly  re- 
fusal to  fight  when  necessary  is  worse,  and  every  healthy  boy 
at  or  about  the  age  of  twelve  years  should  be  taught  to  box  in 
order  to  hold  within  bounds  and  discipline  the  fighting  tendency. 
With  bad  associations  removed,  boxing  is  a  very  manly  art.  It 
trains  the  muscles,  cultivates  quickness  of  eye,  hand  and  foot, 
increases  decision,  will-power,  self-reliance  and  self-restraint. 
It  lessens  nerv^ous  irritability  and  greatly  amends  passionate, 
pee\ish  and  effeminate  dispositions."  Starr,  The  Adolescent 
Period,  pp.   17,  27. 

3.  What  games  and  plays  are  particularl}'  well  suited  to  ndo- 

344 


ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR   T()   ADOLESCENCE  345 

lescentboys?  To  adolescent  girls?  Indicate  the  characteristics 
of  the  games  and  plays  you  mention  that  make  them  especially 
suitable  for  adolescents. 

4.  What  is  the  meaning  of  "growing  pains"?  Are  boys  as 
well  as  girls  aflflicted  in  this  manner? 

5.  What  faults  are  boys  peculiarly  subject  to  during  ado- 
lescence ?  Are  girls  subject  to  the  same  or  to  different  faults  ? 
Explain. 

6.  Curves  are  given  on  p.  170  (Fig.  26)  showing  the  rate  of 
annual  increase  in  endurance,  vital  capacity,  weight  and  grip  o^ 
right  hand.  What  inferences  may  be  drawn  from  these  curves, 
taken  singly  and  collectively,  relating  to  adolescence? 

7.  Does  Coleridge  indulge  in  poetic  license  in  the  following 
quotation  in  which  he  contrasts  youth  with  age,  or  does  he  con- 
fine himself  closely  to  facts  ? 

"Crabbed  age  and  youth  cannot  live  together. 
Youth  is  full  of  pleasures,  age  is  full  of  care ; 
Youth  is  like  summer  morn,  age  like  winter  weather ; 
Youth  like  summer  brave,  age  like  winter  bare ; 
Youth  is  full  of  sport,  age's  breath  is  short, 
Youth  is  nimble,  age  is  lame, 
Youth  is  hot  and  bold,  age  is  weak  and  cold. 
Youth  is  wild  and  age  is  tame." 

8.  Is  the  following  incident  reported  in  the  New  York  Times, 
for  May  5,  1910,  quite  common  or  is  it  unusual? 

"Five  boys,  ranging  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  years  old,  were 
arraigned  before  Justice  Hoyt,  sitting  in  the  Children's  Court, 
yesterday,  charged  with  improper  guardianship.  After  the  judge 
had  heard  their  stories,  they  were  remanded  to  the  Children's 
Society  until  Saturday. 

"On  Tuesday  afternoon  a  policeman  of  the  West  Forty- 
seventh  Street  Station  saw  the  boys  acting  suspiciously  in  the 


34^5     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

freight  yard  of  the  New  York.  Ccnlral  Railroad  at  the  foot  of 
West  Fifty-seventh  Street.  He  watched  them  for  some  time 
and  saw  the  five  climb  into  an  empty  freight  car  attached  to  a 
train  thai  had  just  started  to  move.     He  then  arrested  them. 

''When  the  boys  were  searched,  an  emergency  kit  was  found 
containing  one  roll  of  six-inch  gauze  bandages,  two  boxes  of  pills, 
one  package  of  court-j)laster,  two  bottles  of  cough-mixture,  two 
bologna-sausage  rings,  and  three  loaves  of  bread. 

"In  court  yesterday  the  one  who  acted  as  spokesman  said 
that  they  had  formed  a  club  some  time  ago  to  get  the  necessary 
things  to  beat  their  way  West.  When  asked  what  they  intended 
to  do  with  the  bandages,  he  said, '  You  can't  tell  what  will  happen 
to  you  when  you  get  West,  and  we  didn't  want  to  take  any 
chances.  We  figured  that  we  could  get  grub  from  somewhere, 
but  if  we  got  mixed  up  in  a  wreck  or  caught  cold,  bandages  and 
medicines  would  be  the  things  we  would  need.'  "  Quoted  by 
Swift,  Youth  and  the  Race,  p.  12. 

9.  Are  the  traits  described  below  typical?  Suggest  explana- 
tions of  the  traits.     How  should  they  be  treated? 

"A  woman  whose  home  is  in  Marion,  Illinois,  has  asked  the 
chief  of  police  to  assist  her  in  fmding  her  daughter,  fourteen  years 
old,  who  disappeared  from  her  home  a  week  ago,  after  telling 
some  of  her  girl  friends  that  she  proposed  to  become  a  female 
detective.     The  girl  took  twenty-three  dollars  in  cash  with  her. 

"Just  before  she  left  home  she  wrote  to  her  best  girl  friend 
and  told  her  of  her  intentions.  After  she  arrived  in  Saint  Louis, 
she  mailed  another  postal  card  to  her  chum,  but  there  was  no 
indication  of  where  the  girl  was  living  in  this  city. 

"The  conductor  on  the  train  on  which  the  girl  came  to  Saint 
Louis  told  the  police  that  she  represented  herself  to  be  an  orphan 
and  said  that  she  was  on  her  way  to  visit  an  aunt.  She  paid 
her  fare  and  the  conductor  gave  her  no  special  attention. 

"The  girl  was  sixteen  years  of  age.     She  was  the  daughter  of 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE  347 

respectable,  hard-working  parents.  Her  father  kept  a  small 
shop  and  by  frygality  and  close  attention  to  business  maintained 
his  family  in  comfortable  circumstances  and  sent  his  children  to 
school.  The  town  was  so  large  that  the  school  children  knew 
nothing  about  the  home  life  of  many  of  their  associates.  This 
enabled  the  daughter  to  weave  the  following  exhilarating  romance 
into  her  life. 

"Her  father  and  mother,  the  girl  told  her  school  associates, 
spent  most  of  their  time  in  Europe.  When  they  were  not  travel- 
ing abroad  they  lived  in  their  summer  cottage  in  Michigan,  and, 
by  way  of  helping  the  imagination  of  her  friends  to  picture  her 
luxury,  she  showed  photographs  which  she  had  purchased  of  a 
pretty  summer  cottage. 

"She  arranged  a  girls'  box  party  at  the  theater,  at  her  own 
expense,  and  invited  one  of  the  teachers  to  accompany  them  as 
chaperon.  The  money  to  defray  the  expenses  was  skillfully 
purloined  from  the  till  of  her  father's  shop  which  she  was  re- 
quired to  tend  after  close  of  school.  Of  course,  her  guests  must 
be  supplied  with  flowers,  but  this  caused  no  serious  difficulty, 
as  a  relative  kept  a  greenhouse  in  which  she  was  frequently  left 
alone.  The  box  party  became  somewhat  complex,  however,  be- 
cause she  could  only  tell  her  family  that  she  was  going  to  the 
theater,  and  her  mother,  naturally,  could  not  allow  her  to  go 
alone.  But  she  was  equal  to  the  emergency  and  proposed  that 
her  older  sister  accompany  her.  On  their  arrival  she  told  her 
sister  that  one  teacher  was  giving  a  box  party  and  had  invited 
her  to  sit  with  them.  She  then  joined  her  school  friends  and 
chaperon  in  the  box. 

"Of  course,  the  romance  would  not  have  been  complete  with- 
out a  devoted  young  admirer.  So  she  gave  her  girl  friends  the 
name  of  one  of  the  officers  of  the  street  railway  company,  which 
she  found  on  a  transfer.  Occasionally  she  pointed  him  out, 
always  selecting  some  young  man  who  was  just  disappearing  in 


348  MENTAL  DEVELOriSIENT  AND   EDUCATION 

the  distance.  She  also  displayed  flowers  which  he  had  sent  to 
her,  roses  that  she  had  secretly  taken  from  the  greenhouse  of 
her  relative.  Several  times  she  said  that  he  had  invited  her  to 
take  a  drive  with  him  and  had  told  her  to  ask  a  girl  friend  to 
accompany  them.  A  sudden  message,  however,  invariably  called 
him  back  to  business,  and  his  disappearing  form  was  always 
pointed  out.  Meanwhile  he  had  left  the  horse  and  carriage  — 
which  she  had  hired  with  money  taken  from  her  father's  money 
drawer  —  in  front  of  the  school  building."  Swift,  Youth  and 
the  Race,  pp.  25-26. 

10.  Judge  Lindsey,  of  the  Juvenile  Court  of  Denver,  believes 
that  boys  guilty  of  lawlessness  can  be  reformed  by  making  them 
responsible  for  the  good  behavior  of  others.  Discuss  the  follow- 
ing case  which  he  cites  in  his  The  Problem  of  the  Children,  p.  107. 

*'  In  a  certain  suburb  of  Denver,  where  the  smelters  are  located 
and  there  are  a  great  many  cheap  saloons  selling  bad  liquor  and 
tobacco  to  children,  two  celebrated  gangs  brought  to  the  juvenile 
court  for  dangerous  forms  of  rowdyism  and  lawlessness  not  only 
completely  suppressed  every  serious  objectionable  act  among 
themselves,  but  also  went  after  the  men  who  were  selling  liquor 
and  tobacco  to  boys.  They  prosecuted  and  sent  several  to  jail, 
and  did  more  to  stop  the  use  of  tobacco  and  liquor  among  boys 
in  that  neighborhood  than  the  police  department  or  civil  authori- 
ties had  done  in  the  history  of  the  town." 

11.  Should  pupils  in  a  high  school  take  a  part  in  making  rules 
for  their  own  government?  What  are  the  advantages  and  the 
disadvantages  of  pupil  self-government  ? 

12.  Suggest  an  explanation  of  the  cause  of  delinquency  de- 
scribefl  by  Healy  in  the  following  account  of  an  incident  which 
occurred  in  a  school  in  Washington  : 

"In  a  certain  school  which  the  children  from  the  families  of 
prominent  officials  and  diplomats  attended,  during  a  number 
of  weeks  there  occurred  a  series  of  remarkable  thefts.     Many 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO   ADOLESCENCE  349 

things  were  taken,  books,  scliool  supplies,  bicycles  anrl  other 
things  belonging  to  the  children.  Valuable  articles  were  also 
taken  from  the  neighborhood.  Now,  what  stood  in  the  way  of 
early  detection  of  the  delinquents  was  that  they  were  not  even 
considered  as  being  the  possible  offenders.  When  the  affair  was 
finally  run  down  it  was  found  that  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  boys 
with  creditable  previous  records,  of  good  school  standing,  many 
of  them  coming  from  notable  families,  had  steadily  been  plunder- 
ing. They  had  a  cave  or  retreat  to  which  the  goods  were  taken 
and  from  which  they  were  recovered.  The  pecuniary  side  entered 
very  little  into  the  transaction,  for  while  some  articles  had  been 
sold,  yet  the  amount  derived  had  been  nothing  comparable  to 
the  sums  readily  obtainable  from  the  parents  by  these  same  boys. 
The  whole  affair  was  essentially  one  of  predatory  adventure 
carried  to  an  extreme  by  individuals  who  came  from  family  cir- 
cumstances that  offered  no  possible  excuse  for  the  stealing." 
Healy,  Honesty,  pp.  79-80. 

13.  How  would  it  do  to  adopt  a  policy  that  no  boy  or  girl 
should  be  graduated  from  a  high  school  who  showed  marked 
physical  defects?  Suppose  this  could  be  impressed  upon  pupils 
in  the  freshman  class ;  would  they  give  attention  to  the  matter 
and  come  through  at  the  end  of  the  high-school  course  in  better 
physical  condition  than  some  of  them  now  do? 

14.  Comment  on  the  following  : 

In  some  high  schools,  most  of  the  pupils  are  not  permitted  to 
use  the  gymnasium  after  school  hours  because  it  is  needed  by 
the  teams.  The  teams  are  trained  every  day,  though  they  are 
least  in  need  of  training.  In  such  high  schools  the  boys  who  most 
need  exercise  have  only  one  or  two  short  periods  a  week.  If 
these  outcasts  do  manage  to  get  up  a  team,  they  cannot  very 
well  take  care  of  themselves.  In  some  schools  the  physical 
training  teachers  devote  nine-tenths  of  their  energies  to  a  few 
boys  on  the  teams  who  are  not  greatly  in  need  of  their  services. 


350  MENIAL    DFAELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

15.  Is  the  following  silualioii  cointnon  in  high  schools?  What 
might  be  done  to  remedy  the  evil  described  ? 

In  some  schools  the  only  road  to  distinction  lies  through 
athletic  superiority.  One  can  hear  pupils  in  such  schools  say : 
''We  want  to  make  the  team.  One  can't  have  any  standing  in 
this  school  unless  he  can  get  on  a  team.  If  I  can't  make  a  team, 
I  am  going  to  drop  out  of  school." 

16.  Granting  that  the  statements  made  in  the  following  para- 
graph are  sound,  suggest  how  a  parent  or  teacher  should  proceed 
to  secure  a  modification  in  the  actions  of  a  boy  who  is  a  member 
of  a  group  and  who  patterns  after  group  models : 

Probably  the  judgment  of  a  boy  who  has  reached  the  teens 
is  sounder  in  respect  to  many  of  his  activities  and  relations  than 
is  the  judgment  of  his  parents.  A  father  may  arbitrarily  tell 
his  fifteen-year-old  boy  how  he  ought  to  stand  or  walk  or  talk, 
wear  his  hat  or  his  trousers,  whether  he  should  have  girl  com- 
panions, what  studies  he  should  elect,  and  so  on ;  but  the  boy  aims 
to  follow  more  or  less  closely  the  models  set  by  the  group  of  which 
he  is  a  member.  The  father  is  not  a  member  of  the  group,  and 
so  he  does  not  know  its  ideals,  customs  or  practices.  The  father 
tries  to  enforce  the  views  of  his  own  mature  group  upon  his  boy, 
who  is  a  member  of  an  immature  group.  The  boy  knows  that 
if  he  adopts  the  actions  of  the  grown-up  group  he  will  be  persona 
non  grata  with  his  own  group. 

17.  Point  out  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages,  if  any,  of 
such  a  daily  program  as  is  described  below  for  all  boys  in  the 
teens : 

Practically  every  detail  of  a  boy's  life  in  a  military  school  is 
regulated  by  a  fixed  program.  He  rises  in  the  morning  at  six 
o'clock  when  reveille  is  sounded.  He  is  given  from  three  to  five 
minutes  to  dress.  At  the  end  of  this  time,  he  must  respond  to 
roll  call  either  for  drill  exercises  or  gymnastics.  Next  he  has 
his  cold  spray.     He  is  given  five  minutes  or  so  to  get  into  his 


ACTIVITIES  PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCEiNCE  351 

uniform.  He  probably  then  will  have  some  more  drill,  after 
which  he  will  march  to  breakfast.  He  stands  at  his  place  at 
table  until  he  is  commanded  to  be  seated.  He  comes  to  attention 
upon  mihtary  command,  and  listens  to  the  orders  for  the  day. 
He  rises  from  the  table  upon  command  and  marches  with  his 
fellows  for  more  drill.  He  is  then  probably  given  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  of  freedom,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  falls  into  line 
in  his  company.  He  marches  to  his  classroom,  sits  upon  military 
command,  and  is  at  attention  throughout  the  recitation.  He 
rises  upon  command,  marches  to  his  next  class  or  his  next  duty ; 
and  so  he  goes  on  until  taps  are  sounded  at  9 :  30  at  night  when 
his  lights  must  go  out.  He  may  have  one  or  two  hours  during 
the  day  when  he  is  at  leisure  to  go  about  without  being  under 
orders,  but  during  the  rest  of  his  time  he  is  under  military  com- 
mand. 

Under  a  mihtary  regime  every  required  action  must  be  per- 
formed exactly  on  time,  and  according  to  fixed  standards.  The 
uniforms  must  be  clean,  every  button  must  be  in  place,  and  the 
clothes  must  fit  the  person  according  to  the  mihtary  style.  If 
there  is  any  neglect  or  deficiency  in  this  respect,  a  definite  penalty 
is  assigned.  The  hands  and  face  must  be  clean,  the  hair  combed, 
the  shoes  brushed,  the  linen  must  be  immaculate,  or  penalties 
are  assigned.  No  cadet  ever  ''talks  back"  in  regard  to  any  of 
these  matters.  The  superior  officer  inspects  and  decides  whether 
or  not  a  cadet  has  conformed  to  the  requirements.  If  the  cadet 
is  ten  seconds  behind  time  at  any  exercise ;  if  he  shows  the 
slightest  discourtesy  toward  any  officer ;  if  he  becomes  negligent 
or  indifferent  either  in  the  classroom  or  in  his  military  exercises 
he  is  reported  for  misconduct  and  penalized. 

18.  Comment  on  the  relations  between  adolescent  boys  and 
the  girls  shown  in  the  foreground  of  the  accompanying  picture. 
(Fig.  78.)  Should  such  relations  be  allowed?  Should  the  rela- 
tions shown  in  Fig.  27,  p.  182,  be  encouraged? 


35-^ 


MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 


19.  In  the  following  passiigc  Jordan  and  Kellogg  (Icscribo 
the  phenomena  of  courtship  among  certain  species  of  animals; 
may  similar  phenomena  be  observed  in  human  life  during  the 
adolescent  period?  Point  out  impUcations  of  your  answer  so 
far  as  adolescent  boys  and  girls  are  concerned. 

"The  instincts  of  courtship  relate  chiefly  to  the  male,  the  female 
being  more  or  less  passive.  Among  many  fishes  the  male  struts 
before  the  female,  spreading  his  fins,  intensifying  his  pigmented 


Fig.  78.  —  Unwholesome  relations  ul  aclolusa-nt  boys  ami  girls.     (.Sec  exercise  18.) 


colors  through  muscular  tension,  and  in  such  fashion  as  he  can 
makes  himself  the  preferred  of  the  female.  In  the  little  brooks 
in  spring  male  minnows  can  be  found  with  warts  on  the  nose  or 
head,  with  crimson  pigment  on  the  fins,  or  blue  pigment  on  the 
back,  or  jet-black  pigment  all  over  the  head,  or  with  varied 
combinations  of  all  these.  Their  instinct  is  to  display  all  these 
to  the  best  advantage,  even  though  the  conspicuous  hues  lead 
to  their  own  destruction.  Against  this  contingency  nature  pro- 
vides a  superfluity  of  males. 


ACTIMTIES   PECULIAR  TO  ADOLESCENCE 


353 


"Among  the  birds  the  male  in  spring  is  in  very  many  species 
provided  with  an  ornamental  plumage  which  he  sheds  when  the 
breeding  season  is  over.  The  scarlet,  crimson,  orange,  blue, 
black,  and  lustrous  colors  of  birds  are  commonly  seen  only  on 
the  males  in  the  breeding  season,  the  young  males  and  all  males 
in  the  fall  having  the  plain  brown  gray  or  streaky  colors  of  the 
female.     Among  the  singing  birds  it  is  chiefly  the  male  that  sings. 


Fig.  79.  —  Each  boy  has  a  patch  of  ground  of  his  own  which  he  is  required  to  cultivate. 

(See  exercise  22.) 

and  his  voice  and  the  instinct  to  use  it  are  commonly  lost  when 
the  young  are  hatched  in  the  nest."  Jordan  and  Kellogg,  Ani- 
mal Life,  pp.  248-249. 

20.  Show  whether  each  of  the  principles  mentioned  below  is 
based  on  established  principles  of  adolescent  development. 
Suggest  an  educational  regimen  suited  to  an  unstable  girl  in  early 
adolescence. 

The  crucial  epoch  in  a  girl's  life  comes  between  fourteen  and 
seventeen.  If  she  has  any  unsteadiness  of  mind  it  will  be  likely 
to  manifest  itself  at  that  time.     The  turning  point  in  the  career 


354 


MENIAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 


of  girls  who  arc  sent  to  reform  schools  comes  at  about  fourteen. 
Such  profound  changes  take  place  then  that  there  is  a  tendency 
for  the  mind  to  "wander."  Dull  tasks  in  home  or  school  are 
duller  at  this  time  than  at  any  time  before  or  after  this  period. 
Nature  evidently  intended  that  a  girl  should  live  the  romantic 

life    during    these    transi- 
tional years. 

2 1 .  Suggest  practical  ap- 
plications to  the  training  of 
boys  of  the  following  from 
Healy : 

"We  have  heard  this 
hundreds  of  times  if  we 
have  heard  it  once,  namely, 
that  stealing  was  never 
done  except  under  the  in- 
dividual's habitual  social 
reactions  in  company  with 
others.  Let  a  boy  live  in  a 
neighborhood  where  the 
boys  go  upon  the  railroad 
tracks  to  steal,  as  they  do 
in  cities ;  it  may  be  des- 
perately hard  to  break  up 
this  habit,  as  many  a  city 
policeman  knows.  Since  these  boys  have  done  this  thing  together 
before,  and  it  has  afforded  the  crowd  exhilaration  and  adventure, 
whenever  they  come  together,  just  from  habit,  their  thought  turns 
to  the  old  scene  of  exploits.  The  pertinacity  of  such  a  habit,  even 
after  warnings  of  many  kinds,  is  astonishing."  Healy,  op.  cU., 
p.  109. 

22.    Which  would  boys  of  the  ages  shown  in  the  picture  (Fig. 
28,  p.  183)  prefer  to  do,    -play  with  a  St.  Bernard  dog  or  play 


Fig.  80.  —  The  favorite  place  for  the  gang  is  an 
out-of-the-way  vacant  lot.     (See  exercise  23.) 


ACTIVITIES   PECULIAR   TO   ADOLESCEXCE  355 

pool?     Account  for  the  boy's  interest  or  lack  thereof  in  the  dog 
as  compared  with  the  pool. 

23.  Would  the  boys  of  the  age  shown  in  the  picture  (Fig.  79) 
prefer  to  cultivate  a  garden  of  their  own  if  they  could  have  one 
rather  than  to  run  the  street  or  loiter  around  poolrooms  ?     Why  ? 

24.  The  boys  shown  in  the  accompanying  picture  (Fig.  80) 
spend  a  considerable  part  of  their  time  in  this  vacant  lot.  De- 
scribe the  activities  in  which  you  think  they  engage.  Suggest 
a  program  for  the  community  to  follow  in  the  treatment  of  this 
gang. 


XI 

DYNAMIC   EDUCATION:    GENERAL   PRINCIPLES 

1.  Show  the  bearing  on  the  question  of  dynamic  education 
of  the  following  quotation  from  Royce : 

"When  in  the  presence  of  familiar  objects,  such  as  our  pen, 
our  watch,  our  knife,  our  dictionary,  or  our  bunch  of  keys,  if  we 
examine  the  image  that  these  objects  awaken  in  us  as  we  observe 
them,  we  may  often  find  images  of  a  more  or  less  obviously 
motor  type  —  images  which  take  the  form  of  the  tendencies 
to  conceive  to  ourselves  certain  familiar  acts  which  these  objects 
call  up  in  our  minds.  Thus  the  pen  may  arouse  the  image  of 
grasping  the  pen  for  the  purpose  of  writing,  the  knife  may  sug- 
gest cutting,  and  so  on.  In  brief,  the  whole  normal  life  of  our 
imagination  has  a  most  intimate  connection  with  our  conduct, 
and  should  not  be  studied  apart  from  conduct.  The  central  pro- 
cesses which  our  images  accompany  form  themselves  a  part  of 
our  reaction  to  our  environment,  and  our  more  organized  series 
of  mental  images  actually  form  part  of  our  conduct."  Royce, 
Oullmes  of  Psychology,  p.  159. 

2.  Comment  on  each  of  the  following  quotations  from  men 
who  have  strongly  influenced  education  in  modern  times.  Say 
whether  the  view  presented  by  each  is  in  accord  or  is  in  conflict 
with  the  principles  developed  in  the  text. 

"The  objects  themselves,  or,  where  this  is  not  possible,  such 
representations  of  them  as  can  be  conveyed  by  copies,  models, 
and  pictures,  must  be  studied.  In  the  case  of  the  languages, 
arts,  morality,  and  piety,  impression  must  be  insured  by  expres- 

356 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES  357 

sion.  'What  has  to  be  done,  must  be  earned  by  doing.'  Read- 
ing, writing  and  singing  are  to  be  acquired  by  practice.  The 
use  of  foreign  languages  affords  a  better  means  of  learning  them 
than  do  the  rules  of  grammar.  Practice,  good  example,  and 
sympathetic  guidance  teach  us  virtue  better  than  do  precepts." 
Comenius. 

"In  thus  relieving  children  of  all  their  school  tasks,  I  take  away 
the  instrument  of  their  greatest  misery,  namely  books.  Reading 
is  the  scourge  of  childhood,  and  almost  the  sole  occupation  that 
we  know  how  to  give  them.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  Emile  will 
hardly  know  what  a  book  is.  But  I  shall  be  told  that  it  is  very 
necessary  that  he  know  how  to  read.  This  I  grant.  It  is  neces- 
sary that  he  know  how  to  read  when  reading  is  useful  to  him. 
Until  then,  it  serves  only  to  annoy  him."     Rousseau. 

**I  believe  that  the  first  development  of  thought  in  the  child 
is  very  much  disturbed  by  a  wordy  system  of  teaching,  which 
is  not  adapted  either  to  his  faculties  or  the  circumstances  of  his 
life.  According  to  my  experience,  success  depends  upon  whether 
what  is  taught  to  children  commends  itself  to  them  as  true 
through  being  closely  connected  with  their  own  observation. 
As  a  general  rule,  I  attached  little  importance  to  the  study  of 
words,  even  when  explanations  of  the  ideas  they  represented 
were  given."     Pestalozzi. 

"We  do  amiss  to  spend  seven  or  eight  years  in  scraping  to- 
gether so  much  miserable  Latin  and  Greek  as  might  be  learned 
otherwise  easily  and  delightfully  in  one  year. 

"Though  a  linguist  should  pride  himself  to  have  all  the  tongues 
that  Babel  cleft  the  world  into,  yet  if  he  have  not  studied  the 
solid  things  in  them  as  well  as  the  words  and  lexicons,  he  were 
nothing  so  much  to  be  esteemed  as  any  yeoman  or  tradesman 
competently  wise  in  his  mother  dialect  only."     Milton. 

"Those  who  have  handled  sciences  have  been  either  men  of 
experiment  or  men  of  dogmas.     The  men  of  experiment  are  like 


358  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

the  ant ;  they  only  collect  and  use ;  the  reasoners  resemble 
spiders  who  make  cobwebs  out  of  their  substance.  But  the 
bee  takes  a  middle  course ;  it  gathers  its  material  from  the  flowers 
of  the  garden  and  the  field,  but  transforms  and  digests  it  by  a 
power  of  its  own.  Not  unlike  that  is  the  true  business  of  phi- 
losophy ;  for  it  neither  relies  solely  or  chiefly  on  the  powers  of 
the  mind,  nor  does  it  take  the  matter  which  it  gathers  from  natural 
history  and  mechanical  experiments  and  lay  it  up  in  the  memory 
whole,  as  it  fmds  it ;  but  lays  it  up  in  the  understanding  altered 
and  digested.  Therefore,  from  a  closer  and  purer  league  between 
these  two  faculties,  the  experimental  and  the  rational  (such  as 
has  never  yet  been  made),  much  may  be  hoped."     Bacon. 

3.  How  does  the  following  quotation  from  Professor  James 
relate  to  the  general  problem  of  a  dynamic  as  contrasted  with  a 
static  program  of  education? 

"The  inessential  'unpractical'  activities  are  themselves  far 
more  connected  with  our  behavior  and  our  adaptation  to  the 
environment  than  at  first  sight  might  appear.  No  truth,  how- 
ever abstract,  is  ever  perceived,  that  will  not  probably  at  some 
time  influence  our  earthly  action.  You  must  remember  that, 
when  I  talk  of  action  here,  I  mean  action  in  the  widest  sense. 
I  mean  speech,  I  mean  writing,  I  mean  yeses  and  noes,  and  tend- 
encies 'from'  things  and  tendencies  'toward'  things,  and  emo- 
tional determinations ;  and  I  mean  them  in  the  future  as  well  as 
in  the  immediate  present."  James,  Talks  to  Teachers,  etc., 
pp.   26  and  27. 

4.  Amplify  the  following  sentences  from  Professor  James  so 
as  to  show  concretely  whether  or  not  he  conceives  of  education 
in  the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  presented  in  Chapter  XII : 

"An  'uneducated'  person  is  one  who  is  nonplused  by  all  but 
the  most  habitual  situations.  On  the  contrary,  one  who  is  edu- 
cated is  able  practically  to  extricate  himself,  by  means  of  the 
examples  with  which  his  memory  is  stored  and  of  the  abstract 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES  359 

conceptions  which  he  has  acquired,  from  circumstances,  in  which 
he  never  was  placed  before."    James,  op.  cit.,  p.  29. 

5.  Suggest  applications  of  the  following  to  the  problem  of 
dynamic  education : 

"An  Atlantic  Uner  encounters  a  fearful  storm,  and  there  is 
great  danger  that  the  vessel  may  be  lost.  There  are  brave  men 
among  the  passengers  as  well  as  among  the  officers  and  crew, 
yet  the  latter  remain  calm,  while  the  passengers  are  on  the  verge 
of  a  panic.  The  captain  on  the  bridge  knows  equally  as  well  as 
the  merchant  in  the  cabin  what  the  storm  means,  but  the  captain 
is  without  emotion,  as  he  firmly  issues  his  orders,  while  the  mer- 
chant is  so  nervous  that  he  cannot  follow  the  hand  at  cards  which 
he  is  playing.  The  difference  in  the  conduct  of  these  two  men 
is  to  be  explained  largely  by  the  fact  that  the  officer  on  the  bridge 
is  doing  something  to  help  the  situation,  while  the  man  below 
deck  is  helpless.  He  has  no  effective  mode  of  action  to  meet 
the  situation,  hence  his  strong  feelings  discharge  themselves  in- 
effectually and  fill  him  with  emotional  excitement.  If  he  could 
do  something,  he  would  at  once  become  a  brave  man.  Effectual 
doing  always  removes  fear."  Colvin  and  Bagley,  Human  Be- 
havior, p.  82. 

6.  Does  Tyler  go  beyond  the  facts,  so  far  as  we  know  them 
to-day,  when  he  speaks  of  the  benefits  of  play  in  the  following 
terms  ? 

"Play  furnishes  the  very  best  mental  training.  Watch  even 
a  game  of  tag.  The  sense-organs  are  all  alert.  The  attention  is 
focused  on  one  point.  This  is  the  best  means  of  training  the 
will,  for  close  attention  to  one  thing  is  one  of  the  best  forms  of 
will-power.  The  child  must  'size  up'  the  situation,  and  grasp 
the  opportunity  once  and  for  all.  He  cannot  'stand  shivering 
on  the  brink  of  action,'  as  the  adult  so  frequently  does.  Think- 
ing, willing,  and  doing  are  united,  not  separated.  The  same 
movement  i^  repeated  until  perfected,  and  with  undiminished 


j6o     MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND  EDUCATION 

interest.  The  child  forgets  himself,  and  loses  shyness  and  self- 
consciousness  in  the  game.  As  he  grows  older,  the  opportunity 
for  skill,  thought,  plan,  and  strategy  constantly  increases.  On 
the  play-ground  he  learns  far  more  than  the  rudiments  of  the 
science  of  success  in  life."     Tyler,  op.  ciL,  pp.  208-209. 

7.  If  the  following  is  true,  give  concrete  illustrations  of  the 
principle  : 

Fere  maintains  that  the  whole  body  "thinks"  when  the  brain 
is  in  action.  Contemplation  at  any  rate  implies  more  than  seeing 
or  hearing  or  imaging  in  a  narrow  sense  ;  it  implies  that  the  child 
gains  an  appreciation  of  what  the  eye  and  ear  give  and  what 
images  mean  because  of  certain  eflfects  which  these  exert  upon 
vital  action. 

8.  What  defense  can  be  made  for  the  schools  in  men- 
tioned below? 

"  A  certain  man  in criticized  the  schools  because,  as  he 

said,  we  were  doing  too  much  '  outside '  work.  He  thought  it  was 
nonsense  to  send  the  eighth-grade  boys  on  the  school  ground  to 
measure  its  perimeter  and  then  calculate  the  cost  of  putting  up  a 
board  fence  or  a  cement  walk  around  the  ground.  Others  have 
criticized  botanical,  geological  and  physiographical  excursions." 

9.  Point  out  the  differences  in  opportunities  for  mental  devel- 
opment in  the  homes  of  fifty  years  ago  as  compared  with  those 
of  to-day,  and  in  city  as  compared  with  country  homes  at  the 
present  time. 

10.  Why  has  the  notion  become  so  prevalent  that  a  child  to 
be  good  must  be  quiet  ? 

11.  Why  are  kindergartens  furnished  with  tables  and  chairs 
instead  of  stationary  desks  and  seats? 

12.  Comment  on  the  \'iew  maintained  by  some  educators 
that  the  school  is  not  intended  to  fit  for  life,  but  is  life? 

13.  Is  there  value  in  teaching;  children  motions  in  singing 
and  reciting? 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES  361 

14.  Is  the  following  statement  true?  If  so,  what  are  its  edu- 
cational impHcations  ? 

When  a  child  is  occupied  in  an  interesting  way,  his  nerves  will 
gain  poise  and  stability.  Many  children  are  made  nervous  be- 
cause they  have  nothing  interesting  to  do,  and  they  are  contin- 
ually restless.  They  become  discontented  and  peevish,  and 
they  are  likely  to  irritate  the  mother  or  teacher  and  this  will  in 
turn  increase  their  nervousness. 

15.  Suggest  educational  implications  of  the  following  quota- 
tion from  Professor  Watson  : 

"One  of  our  students  at  Hopkins  allowed  nearly  one  hundred 
animals  of  different  ages  to  learn  a  very  complex  maze,  taking 
the  while  an  accurate  record  of  the  number  of  trials  required 
to  master  it.  The  animals  were  divided  into  four  groups;  a 
twenty-five  day  old  group,  which  is  the  age  at  which  they  be- 
come independent  of  the  mother ;  a  sixty-five  day  old  group,  or 
the  age  of  sexual  maturity ;  a  two  hundred  day  old  group,  which 
might  represent  the  middle  of  adult  life ;  and  a  three  hundred 
day  old  group,  to  represent  the  beginning  of  old  age.  The 
twenty-five  day  old  rats  and  the  sixty-five  day  old  rats,  which 
represent  our  most  youthful  groups,  learned  the  maze  in  approxi- 
mately thirty  trials  ;  whereas  the  two  hundred  and  three  hundred 
day  old  animals  required  nearly  a  third  more  trials  —  about 
forty- two.  The  young  animals  required  about  six  seconds  for 
their  finally  perfected  runs ;  the  old  groups  required  about  ten 
seconds.  These  experiments  show  clearly  two  things ;  first, 
that,  as  everyone  has  hitherto  suspected,  the  young  animals  do 
learn  faster  than  the  old  ones ;  but  in  the  second  place,  that  the 
old  animals  can  learn  very  fast  indeed,  all  things  considered.  We 
have  continued  these  experiments  with  a  few  very  old  animals 
and  we  find  that  animals  even  five  and  six  hundred  days  old  still 
have  the  ability  to  learn  this  complicated  maze."  Jennings,  et  al., 
Suggestions  of  Modern  Science  Concerning  Education,  pp.  91-92. 


362  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AM)   EDUCATION 

}6.  In  view  of  the  statements  in  llie  lollowing  quotation  from 
Professor  Jennings,  comment  on  the  daily  regime  of  the  school 
you  know  best : 

"  Keeping  the  child  sitting  still  for  hours  at  a  time,  as  we  do 
in  our  schools,  -  -  and  particularly  when  this  is  done  in  stagnant 
air,  as  is  usually  the  case,  —  has  a  most  marked  and  immediate 
efTect  in  decreasing  appetite  (and  thus  shutting  off  nutrition) ; 
in  decreasing  respiration,  in  decreasing  resistance  to  blights, 
in  a  general  suspension  or  slowing  of  physical  development. 
These  are  not  mere  loose  general  statements;  precise  facts  and 
figures  showing  these  effects  could  be  presented  if  time  permitted. 
The  sitting  posture  when  long  continued  is  most  abnormal  and 
harmful  for  the  growing  child ;  to  demand  it  for  many  hours  a 
day  is  a  crime.  From  this  point  of  view  the  changes  required  in 
our  system  of  cultivation  arc :  more  activity,  frequent  altera- 
tions of  position,  frequent  periods  of  play  or  of  moving  about ; 
more  manual  work  in  place  of  inactive  study."  Jennings,  e/  al., 
op.  ciL,  pp.  41-42. 

17.  In  an  older  day  it  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  waste 
of  time  for  a  teacher  to  take  her  pupils  to  a  blacksmith  shop 
(Fig.  29,  p.  190).  How  do  you  view  this  matter?  How  have 
you  gained  your  views? 

18.  Comment  on  the  value  of  arithmetic  to  a  pupil  who  has 
never  had  opportunity  to  employ  it  in  practical  situations  — 
whose  experience  with  it  has  never  extended  beyond  the  text- 
book. 

19.  Can  one  teach  commercial  arithmetic  to  pupils  so  that 
they  will  use  it  as  they  acquire  it?  Or  if  taught  must  it  be  ac- 
quired by  definition  and  by  solving  book  problems?  Give  in- 
stances to  illustrate  your  answer. 

20.  Point  out  the  difference  in  methods  in  teaching  writing 
in  a  dynamic  and  in  a  static  way. 

21.  How  may  French,  as  a  typical  foreign  language,  be  taught 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES  363 

dynamically?  Compare  two  pupils  who  have  been  taught 
French  for  the  same  length  of  time,  one  in  a  static,  verbal  way, 
the  other  in  a  dynamic  way.  How  will  they  differ  in  their  mas- 
tery of  the  language  ? 

22.  Why  is  it  that  so  many  Americans  who  have  studied  French 
or  German  or  Spanish  for  two,  three  or  even  four  years  cannot 
express  themselves  intelligibly  when  traveling  in  France  or  Ger- 
many or  Spain  ? 

23.  Show  how  the  dynamic  method  may  be  applied  in  the 
teaching  of  (a)  history,  (h)  literature,  (c)  physics. 

24.  Compare  the  high  schools  and  the  elementary  schools  in 
your  locality.  Which,  so  far  as  you  can  observe,  are  the  more 
vital  and  dynamic  in  their  teaching?  What  are  the  evidences 
upon  which  your  opinion  is  based?  Suggest  an  explanation  of 
the  facts  as  you  find  them. 

25.  If  there  is  any  difference,  say  which  is  easier  to  present  in  a 
dynamic  manner,  the  studies  in  the  elementary  school  or  in  the 
high  school  ?  Is  dynamic  teaching  as  essential  in  the  high  school 
as  in  the  lower  schools  ?     Why  ? 

26.  Has  dynamic  teaching  been  introduced  into  the  Sunday 
school?     Comment  upon  the  situation  as  you  find  it. 

27.  Apply  the  principle  contained  in  the  following  quotation 
from  Professor  Watson  to  the  problems  of  teaching  writing,  piano 
playing,  and  the  like  : 

''The  subjects  were  all  forced  to  shoot  five  hundred  times; 
in  other  words,  the  total  amount  of  i)ractice  was  the  same  for 
all  groups.  The  groups  were  all  carefully  selected,  none  of  the 
subjects  having  had  previous  practice  on  the  English  long  bow 
and  all  having  about  the  same  degree  of  initial  efficiency.  After 
each  shot  was  made,  the  distance  of  the  arrow  from  the  center 
of  the  bull's  eye  was  measured.  The  subjects  were  thrown  into 
the  following  groups  :  one  group  had  to  shoot  five  times  per  day  ; 
another  twelve  times  per  day;  another  twenty;  and  the  fourth 


364  MENTAL  DE\ELOPMENT  AND   EDUCA HON 

forty.  The  final  accuracy  of  the  hist  twenty-five  shots  was 
chosen  as  a  measure  of  the  amount  of  improvement  which  had 
taken  place.  The  results  strongly  confirm  those  already  reported 
for  the  rat ;  the  group  shooting  five  times  a  day  could  shoot 
approximately  twice  to  three  times  as  accurately  as  the  group 
having  to  shoot  forty  times  per  day.     There  seems  to  be  no  ques- 


KiG.  81.  —  Dynamic  methods  of  teaching  pyramids  and  cones.     (See  exercise  40.) 

tion  but  that  this  law  is  universal  in  its  appHcation."     Jennings, 
et  al.,  p.  8. 

28.  Comment  on  the  value  in  schools  of  debating  societies 
for  training  in  the  use  of  English.  May  they  serve  any  other 
useful  purpose  ? 

29.  If  you  are  not  an  artist,  could  you  reproduce  a  drawing 
better  if  you  observed  it  being  made  than  if  it  were  set  before 
you  completed  ?     What  is  the  principle  involved  ? 

30.  Comment  upon  the  following :  A  pupil  is  not  writing 
well.     The  teacher  puts  a  copy  on  the  board,  and  asks  him  to 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES 


36  = 


reproduce  it.  Upon  his  failure  to  do  so  satisfactorily  she  up- 
braids him,  says  he  is  careless,  and  she  commands  him  to  give 
better  attention.  As  a  punishment  she  keeps  him  after  school, 
and  requires  him  to  practice  his  writing  by  looking  at  the  copy 
and  trying  to  imitate  it. 

31.    Is  it  best  to  require  pupils  to  observe  a  copy  as  they  try 
to  reproduce  it,  or  to  study  it  first,  and  then  reproduce  from 


Fig.  82.  —  Learning  how  to  take  care  of  a  baby.     (See  exercise  43.) 

memory?  Should  pupils  acquire  habits  of  reproducing  rapidly 
or  reproducing  slowly?     What  principles  are  involved? 

32.  Is  the  following  a  typical  case?  What  would  you  advise 
a  teacher  to  do  in  such  circumstances? 

The  writer  observed  a  teacher  recently  teaching  a  pupil  to 
pronounce  the  word  "  Ypres."  The  boy  had  previously  seen 
it  and  he  had  pronounced  it  as  it  looked,  which  was  not  quite 
right  since  the  pronunciation  does  not  exactly  follow  the  spelling. 
The  teacher  stood  in  the  front  of  the  room  and  the  pupil  was  at 
the  rear ;  the  former  pronounced  the  word  as  a  whole,  and  the 


366 


MEMAi-   L)E\  ELOIWIEN  1    AM)    EDUCATION 


latter  tried  to  iiiiitatt  it,  Wul  he  pronounced  it  the  way  it  looked. 
He  really  heard  it  as  it  looked,  since  the  latter  got  established 
first.  The  teacher  pronounced  it  several  times,  and  the  boy 
made  the  same  mistake  each  time.  The  teacher  then  became 
impatient  and  crilici/eil  him,  hut  with  no  good  results. 

i,^.    How  much  of  what  was  taugiit  you  in  grammar  have  you 
retained?     Can  you   recall  and   ajjply   the  rules  you  learned? 


l-iG.  83.  — There  is  something  to  Uarn  even  about  making  a  l>cd.     (Sec  exercise  43.) 


Comment  on  the  facts  revealed  in  your  reflection  upon  the  results 
of  your  study  of  this  subject. 

34.  Which  is  more  static  in  its  method  of  teaching,  the  coun- 
try school  or  the  city  school?  Which  offers  the  greater  oppor- 
tunity for  dynamic  teaching?  Comment  on  the  situation  as  you 
find  it. 

35.  Can  agriculture  be  taught  in  country  schools  so  that  it 
will  have  meaning  and  vitality  for  the  pupils?  Is  it  so  taught? 
Explain  the  facts  as  you  find  them. 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    CONTENT  STUDIES  567 

36.  Which  requires  the  greater  preparation  and  skill  on  the 
teacher's  part, — ^a  static  or  a  dynamic  method  of  teaching? 
Why? 

37.  Suggest  how  the  use  of  newspapers  and  magazines  may 
contribute  to  the  dynamic  teaching  of  civics,  history  and  geog- 
raphy. 

7,8.  Discuss  the  problem  involved  in  the  following : 
Why  is  it  that  pupils  do  not  more  readily  take  to  the  reading 
that  we  have  to  put  them  through  in  the  schools?  If  left  to 
themselves,  they  do  not  choose  this  reading.  But  it  is  the  best 
literature  and  pupils  ought  to  like  to  read  it.  It  seems  that 
children  ought  to  take  to  the  best  literature  in  our  language 
instead  of  having  to  be  coaxed  into  it.  I  sometimes  doubt 
whether  we  succeed  in  coaxing  them  to  read  the  best  authors. 

39.  Can  the  type  of  work  in  measurement  shown  in  the  illus- 
tration on  p.  192  (Fig.  30)  be  commended?     Why? 

40.  Do  you  approve  of  the  method  of  teaching  pyramids  and 
cones  as  shown  in  the  picture?     (Fig.  81.) 

41.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages,  if  any,  of 
the  type  of  work  for  boys  in  a  consolidated  rural  school  as  shown 
in  the  illustration  on  p.  194?     (Fig.  31.) 

42.  Suggest  a  practicable  program  for  training  the  fourteen 
children  from  fourteen  different  foreign  countries  to  be  intelli- 
gent and  patriotic  Americans.     (Fig.  32,  p.  199.) 

43.  Should  work  of  the  character  shown  in  the  two  pic- 
tures (Figs.  82  and  83)  be  offered  in  all  schools  in  which  there 
are  girl  students?     Why? 


XII 
DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    THE   ROLE   OF  SUGGESTION 

1.  In  her  treatment  of  an  individual's  errors,  as  in  falling 
down  stairs,  does  nature  depend  upon  suggestion  or  upon  direct 
command  and  punishment  ? 

2.  Should  the  phenomena  described  by  Keatinge  in  the  follow- 
ing quotation  be  regarded  as  illustrating  (a)  suggestion  or  (b) 
imitation?     What  is  the  essential  difference  between  the  two? 

''If  I  see  a  number  of  people  streaming  through  a  gate,  I  feel 
a  natural  tendency  to  follow,  and  the  more  the  individuals  of 
which  the  crowd  is  composed  resemble  me,  the  greater  is  this 
tendency.  Unconsciously  I  infer  that  what  interests  people 
whose  mental  constitution  is  like  my  own,  will  also  interest  me. 
In  the  same  way,  I  experience  a  tendency  to  wear  the  same  hats 
as  my  fellow-countrymen,  and  in  particular,  as  those  whose  con- 
ditions of  life  and  whose  incomes  are  similar  to  my  own ;  but  I 
have  not  the  least  wish  to  adopt  a  Chinese  or  Mexican  head-gear. 
Similarly,  a  number  of  sheep  will  follow  one  another  into  a  field, 
but  will  not  follow  horses,  cows,  or  men."  Keatinge,  Sugges- 
tion in  Education,  p.  88. 

3.  Cite  concrete  instances  within  your  own  experience  similar 
to  those  given  below  illustrative  of  the  fact  that  suggestion  may 
affect  the  functions  of  bodily  organs. 

"A  person  who  believes  he  has  been  pricked  by  a  pin  feels 
the  sting  and  makes  a  movement  of  protection.  One  who  be- 
lieves his  food  to  have  been  prepared  in  a  disgusting  way  ex- 
periences repugnance  and  may  vomit  solely  in  consequence  of 
the  idea.     In  a  scries  of  tests  of  the  electrical  excitability  of 

368 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    THE  ROLE  OF  SUGGESTION      369 

various  persons,  Dubois  used  a  non-active  unconnected  battery, 
and  yet  he  found  that  most  of  his  subjects,  thoroughly  beheving 
the  electric  current  had  been  applied,  were  able  to  give  accurate 
descriptions  of  sensations  which  might  have  been  expected  only 
from  an  active  battery  and  which  ranged  from  a  slight  tingling 
or  burning  up  to  unbearable  pain."  Jacoby,  Suggestion  and 
Psychotherapy,  p.  148. 

4.  Is  there  any  relation  between  hypnotism  and  suggestion, 
as  the  latter  is  treated  in  the  text?  Teachers  are  sometimes 
said  to  control  their  pupils  by  "hypnotism";  have  you  known 
such  a  case?  If  so,  describe  precisely  the  teacher's  method  of 
operating  on  the  pupils  and  their  response. 

5.  What  is  meant  by  "mesmerizing"  animals  or  human  beings ? 
Hindoo  " miracle-men "  are  said  to  be  able  to  "mesmerize "  vicious 
snakes ;  try  to  find  out  what  basis  of  fact  there  is  in  this  wide- 
spread belief. 

6.  Does  anything  occur  in  everyday  human  life  resembling 
the  actions  of  horses  in  the  Russian  St.  Petersburg  stampede  of 
1871,  as  quoted  by  Sidis? 

"On  the  second  night  of  the  campaign  an  unlucky  accident 
occurred.  ...  A  regiment  of  the  Empress's  Cuirassiers  of  the 
Guard,  nine  hundred  strong,  had  arrived  at  their  cantonments. 
One  of -the  squadron  of  horses  became  alarmed,  broke  away,  was 
followed  by  the  next  squadron,  and,  a  panic  seizing  them  all, 
in  one  instant  the  whole  nine  hundred  fled  in  wild  disorder.  .  .  . 
Two  things  were  very  remarkable  in  this  stampede.  In  the  first 
place,  they  unanimously  selected  one  large,  powerful  horse  as 
their  leader,  and,  with  a  look  at  him  and  a  snort  at  him  which 
they  meant  and  he  understood  as  apres  vous,  they  actually  waited 
until  he  dashed  to  the  front,  and  then  followed  in  wild  confusion. 
When  I  tell  you  that  some  of  the  horses  were  not  recovered  till 
they  had  gone  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  into  Finland,  you 
may  imagine  what  the  panic  was. 


370  MENTAL   DE\ELOPMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

"The  second  remarkable  thing  is  the  way  that  some  of  them 
were  stopped.  In  one  solid  tnass  they  dashed  on  for  miles,  and 
then  came  directly,  at  right  angles,  on  a  river.  In  front  of  them 
was  a  bridge,  but  on  the  other  side  of  the  bridge  was  a  sort  of 
tetc  du  pont  and  a  small  picket  of  cavalry.  The  horse  which  led 
would  not  face  the  bridge,  seeing  the  cavalry  at  the  other  end, 
but  turned  to  one  side,  dashed  into  the  stream,  and  the  whole 
nine  hundred  horses  swam  the  river  together.  As  they  emerged 
and  flew  wildly  on,  the  commander  of  the  picket  bethought  him 
of  a  ruse,  and  ordered  a  bugler  to  blow  the  appel.  This  is  always 
blown  when  the  horses  are  going  to  be  fed.  .  .  .  All  the  old  horses 
pricked  up  their  ears,  wavered,  stopped,  paused,  turned  round 
and  trotted  back.  .  .  .  This  severed  the  mass.  ..."  Sidis, 
Psychology  of  Suggestion,  p.  317. 

7.  Could  the  problem  presented  in  the  following  letter  from  a 
mother  have  been  solved  better  by  suggestion  than  by  the  use 
of  physical  force?  Indicate  the  procedure  which  should  have 
been  followed. 

''T  have  a  little  son  four  years  old.  One  day  a  friend  was 
visiting  us.  My  little  boy  had  a  book  that  he  was  interested  in. 
My  friend  asked  him  to  let  her  see  it.  He  did  not  refuse  in  words, 
but  would  not  hand  her  the  book.  I  asked  him  several  times 
to  do  it,  and  finally  took  him  away  and  spanked  him ; .  then  I 
gave  the  book  to  my  friend  myself,  and  then  put  him  to  bed  an 
hour  earlier  than  his  usual  time.  Next  morning  he  was  his  usual 
sweet  self,  but  I  did  not  feel  as  though  I  had  done  right,  and  yet 
I  felt  there  was  no  other  way  unless  I  ignored  it  entirely." 

8.  Outline  a  program,  based  on  suggestion,  of  dealing  with 
sullen  boys,  as  described  below : 

"What  is  the  best  way  to  deal  with  the  sullen  boy?  The 
problem  is  an  ever  recurring  one,  to  me  at  least.  This  year  I 
have  several  boys,  who,  as  soon  as  anything  displeases  them,  — 
an  unwelcome  task,  the  refusal  of  some  request,  or  a  reprimand, — 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION:    THE  ROLE  OF  SUG(iESTION      571 

slam  their  books,  jerk  and  shiver  about,   nuitter,  and  remain 
sullen  for  some  time.'' 

9.  Can  Kirkpatrick's  views  regarding  contrary  suggestion,  as 
given  in  the  quotation  below,  be  defended  ?  Do  his  explanations 
of  the  child's  attitude  of  resistance  toward  the  suggestions  given 
him  seem  to  you  to  be  sound? 

"At  about  three  years  of  age  contrary  suggestion  often  appears, 
and  at  more  or  less  frequent  intervals  controls  the  child's  action. 
He  not  only  refuses  to  do  what  others  do,  and  what  it  is  suggested 
that  he  shall  do,  but  as  far  as  possible  does  just  the  opposite  of 
what  the  imitative  impulse  would  impel  him  to  do."  Kirkpatrick, 
Fundamentals  of  Child  Study,  pp.  135-136. 

10.  Below  is  given  an  account  of  the  influence  of  dress  on  the 
behavior  of  a  group  of  boys.  Is  this  influence  due  to  suggestion  ? 
Would  the  principle  apply  in  the  case  of  clean  hands  and  face, 
well-combed  hair  and  the  like? 

In  a  certain  fourth-grade  room  in  a  public  school  there  were 
a  number  of  boys  who  had  been  giving  their  teacher  considerable 
trouble.  They  were  rough  in  the  school  and  made  a  good  deal 
of  noise  in  going  to  and  from  classes  and  even  while  they  were  in 
their  seats.  They  would  knock  their  boots  against  the  sides  of 
their  desks,  with  the  result  that  they  annoyed  the  pupils  around 
them  and  irritated  the  teacher,  who  was  a  highly-organized 
young  woman  and  who  had  been  accustomed  to  refined  ways  in 
the  people  about  her. 

The  writer  had  a  chance  to  observe  these  boys  at  close  range, 
and  they  were  really  good  at  heart,  but  they  did  not  fit  in  very 
well  with  the  restrained  and  restricted  regime  of  the  schoolroom. 
Outside  of  the  schoolroom  they  lived  a  rather  rough,  masculine 
kind  of  life.  They  wore  thick-soled  boots  which  alone  would 
meet  the,  needs  of  their  vigorous  activities  out  of  doors.  For 
the  same  reason  they  wore  coarse  clothes  which  would  withstand 
rough  usage.     Their  parents  could   afford  a  different  kind  of 


^72  iMENTAL   DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION' 

clothing  lor  them,  but  the  boys  preferred  what  they  had  be- 
cause then  they  were  not  scolded  if  they  tumbled  in  the  snow  or 
even  accidentally  fell  in  the  mud. 

During  the  winter  it  was  suggested  to  the  teacher  that  the 
boys  should  be  required  to  remove  their  heavy  boots  while  in 
the  schoolroom  and  wear  slippers,  or  else  to  have  rubber  heels 
put  on  the  boots.  The  parents  sympathized  with  this  request 
and  it  was  complied  with.  It  has  had  a  marked  effect  upon  the 
behavior  of  the  boys.  The  wearing  of  slippers  has  softened  their 
manners ;  coarse,  heavy  boots  seem  inevitably  to  induce  a  noisy, 
rough  manner. 

The  principle  applies  to  clothes  as  well  as  to  footwear.  The 
boy  who  comes  in  from  his  rough  out-of-door  games  should  take 
ofif  his  coarse  clothes  and  put  on  others  which  are  ordinarily 
worn  under  conditions  where  there  is  some  restraint.  Practically 
every  individual,  whether  child  or  adult,  unconsciously  assumes 
good  behavior  when  he  puts  on  his  Sunday  clothes.  He  thinks 
of  himself  in  terms  of  his  clothing,  though  he  is  not  usually  con- 
scious of  this. 

II.  Is  the  procedure  indicated  in  the  following  note  based  on 
suggestion?  If  so,  indicate  other  ways  in  which  the  principle 
could  be  advantageously  applied  : 

In  the  Montessori  schools  the  children  become  quiet  and  re- 
laxed several  times  during  each  day.  At  a  sound  on  the  piano 
the  room  is  darkened,  heads  droop,  and  the  children  are  relaxed 
for  five  minutes  or  so.  Then  at  another  sound  on  the  piano  the 
curtains  are  raised  and  the  children  are  active  again.  This 
suggests  a  method  which  might  be  adopted  in  all  homes.  When 
nap  time  comes  the  mother  should  darken  the  room  and  hold 
her  child  quietly  for  a  few  minutes,  perhaps  stroking  his  head 
and  crooning  so  as  to  give  an  air  of  quiet  and  monotony.  Then 
when  the  nervous  system  is  soothed  the  child  will  probably  relax 
and  fall  asleep. 


DYNAMIC  EDUCATION  :    THE  ROLE  OF  SUGGESTION     373 

12.  How  could  one  effectively  change  the  set  of  mind  of  a 
boy  who  had  acquired  the  habit  of  resisting  any  suggestion  given 
him  by  his  father,  as  described  in  the  following  note? 

A  father  may  keep  nagging  his  son  because  he  wears  caps  of 
a  certain  color,  size  and  shape.  All  the  boys  in  his  group  wear 
caps  of  this  sort,  but  they  do  not  satisfy  the  father's  notions  of 
what  he  himself  likes.  So  every  time  the  boy  puts  on  his  cap 
the  father  makes  adverse  comments,  and  says:  "You  must  not 
pay  any  attention  to  what  the  boys  say.  I  know  better  than 
they  do  what  is  good  style,  and  I  know  that  that  cap  is  not 
suitable  for  you.  You  must  not  permit  boys  who  have  no  taste 
to  determine  what  you  will  wear."  In  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the 
boy  will  continue  to  wear  the  cap  that  his  group  approve,  but 
he  will  be  irritated  by  his  father's  attitude.  Every  day  he  will 
develop  resistance  to  his  father's  wishes  and  commands.  He 
may  finally  reach  the  stage  when  he  will  automatically  resist 
any  suggestion  that  is  made  because  he  expects  it  will  be  some- 
thing which  is  contrary  to  the  practice  of  his  group.  One  fre- 
quently sees  boys  who  are  in  this  resistant  attitude  toward  every 
suggestion  made  by  the  adults  in  their  households. 

13.  Is  the  following  explanation  of  the  interest  of  young 
persons  in  moving  pictures  accurate  and  adequate?  Is  the  in- 
terest based  on  suggestion  ? 

One  can  observe  a  love-making  scene  on  the  screen  and  in  a 
way  he  can  project  himself  into  it  and  live  in  it,  much  as  though 
he  were  himself  the  chief  actor.  He  can  observe  deeds  of  hero- 
ism, as  the  saving  of  a  life,  or  the  killing  of  a  lion,  or  the  whipping 
of  a  bully,  and  for  the  time  being  the  observer  is  the  hero ;  he 
has  something  of  the  same  pleasure  that  he  would  have  if  he 
were  the  real  hero.  This  is  particularly  true  of  children  who 
have  not  developed  the  power  of  inhibition  to  a  high  degree,  and 
whose  impulses  are  constantly  surging  up  and  demanding  grati- 
fication.    A  young  person  is  entranced  when  he  can  withdraw 


374  MENTAL   DEXELOl'MENJ    AND    EDUCATION 

from  the  conventional  life  around  him  and  live  in  adventurous, 
romantic,  heroic,  comic  and  amorous  scenes.  For  the  time  beinj^ 
he  is  a  bona  fide  participator  in  these  dramas.  He  does  not  ap- 
preciate that  it  is  all  make-believe,  and  that  he  is  simply  an  on- 
looker. He  is  right  in  the  midst  of  things.  When  there  is  bloody 
work  going  on  he  is  not  sitting  back  at  a  safe  distance  and  watch- 
ing the  scene.  He  hears  the  groans  of  the  victim,  and  he  ex- 
periences active  and  positive  feelings  toward  the  murderer. 
Tears  flow  down  his  checks  in  compassion  for  the  unfortunate, 
and  he  rejoices  with  the  hero  and  the  heroine  as  though  they  were 
performing  before  him  in  the  flesh. 

14.  Is  it  essential  for  the  development  of  the  individual's 
character  that  he  should  be  subjected  freely  to  temptation? 
Try  to  secure  a  reliable  answer  to  this  question,  —  Are  the  most 
upright  and  moral  persons  in  maturity  those  who  have  been  ex- 
posed to  temptation  most  frequently  in  their  early  years? 

15.  Restate  the  following  paragraphs  from  Clark,  in  your  own 
phrasing,  and  point  out  the  relation  of  Clark's  views  to  the  prin- 
ciples presented  in  the  text : 

"One  person  cannot  exert  educative  influence  upon  the  life 
of  another  mechanically ;  that  is,  he  cannot  manipulate  the  fac- 
tors of  the  life  as  he  handles  things  in  his  material  environment. 
He  cannot  dissolve  a  state  of  consciousness  by  the  introduction 
of  a  reaction  agent  with  the  definiteness  and  certainty  of  a  chem- 
ist. He  cannot  force  into  the  life  of  another  an  element  wholly 
foreign  to  it,  and  hence  he  cannot  control  that  life  from  without. 
All  his  control  must  be  exercised  through  elements  found  within 
the  life  itself  and  by  means  of  the  life's  own  normal  activities. 
One  may  knock  at  the  door,  but  he  cannot  force  an  entrance; 
it  is  only  as  the  life  itself  gives  him  welcome  that  he  can  par- 
ticipate in  it.  The  teacher  cannot  give  his  'knowledge'  to  his 
pupil ;  he  can  only  express  what  he  knows,  i.e.,  what  he  is,  in 
the  hope  that  his  pupil  may  be  induced  to  know,  i.e.,  to  be,  some- 


DYNAMIC   EDUCATION:    THE  ROLE  OF  SUGGESTION     375 

thing  similar  in  general  content  and  form.  A  man's  knowledge 
is  himself,  and  it  cannot  be  transferred,  either  en  masse  or  in  its 
elements,  to  another ;  also  the  pupil's  knowledge  is  his  own  crea- 
tion, the  manifestation  of  his  own  life,  and  cannot  be  appropri- 
ated mechanically  from  the  experience  of  another.  Each  per- 
son's character  is  unique  in  its  individuality.  It  grows  naturally 
through  simple  life-functioning  and  cannot  be  made  by  external 
manipulation."     Clark,  Suggestion  in  Education,  pp.  46-47. 

16.  Keatinge  maintains,  in  the  quotation  given  below,  that  it 
is  impossible  to  prevent  a  child  from  receiving  and  acting  upon 
suggestions  from  one  source  or  another.  Comment  upon  Kea- 
tinge's  views,  pointing  out  especially  how  it  is  possible  to  avoid 
the  prejudice  described  in  the  last  sentence  of  the  quotation. 

"It  is,  in  the  first  place,  impossible  to  withdraw  a  child  from 
all  suggestive  influences,  unless  he  is  brought  up  in  air-tight 
isolation.  He  will  receive  suggestions  from  servants,  from 
companions,  from  shop-windows,  from  the  life  that  he  sees  in 
the  streets.  The  efforts  that  are  sometimes  made  to  bring  up  a 
child  with  an  impartial  mind  on  matters  of  religion,  morality, 
or  politics,  in  order  that  he  may  be  free  to  take  his  own  Hne  when 
he  is  of  a  fit  age  to  judge,  are  bound  to  end  in  failure.  From 
birth  he  is  exposed  to  contagion  on  every  side,  and  long  before 
he  reaches  maturity  will  be  tinged  with  prejudices  which  render 
true  impartiality  of  judgment  diflicult  if  not  impossible."  Kea- 
tinge, Suggestion  in  Education,  pp.  185-186. 

17.  What  proportion  of  individuals  chosen  at  random  would 
be  as  suggestible  as  Mr.  S.,  described  by  Dr.  Sidis?  Make  some 
experiments  on  at  least  one  of  your  associates  to  determine  if 
he  or  she  is  as  responsive  as  Mr.  S.  Explain  the  facts  revealed 
by  your  experiment. 

"In  the  case  of  one  subject  —  Mr.  S.,  one  of  the  ablest  men 
in  the  Psychological  Laboratory  —  I  found  that  my  order  was 
carried  out  in  a  reflex  way ;  so  much  so  that  a  few  times,  when  I 


376  MENTAL   DE\ELOrMExNT   AND   EDUCATION 

called  out  '  Strike  I '  '  Hammer  I '  the  hand  went  down  on  the  table 
instantaneously  and  with  such  violence  that  the  table  was  nearly 
shattered.  Mr.  S.  felt  pain  in  his  hand  for  some  minutes.  On 
one  occasion  I  called  out,  'Look  there  ! '  Quick  as  lightning  Mr. 
S.  turned  round  and  looked  hard.  On  another  occasion  I  com- 
manded, 'Rise  I'  Back  moved  the  chair  and  up  went  Mr.  S." 
Sidis,  Psychology  of  Suggestion,  p.  35. 


XIII 
OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:  WASTEFUL  PRACTICES 

1.  If  you  write  much  with  a  fountain  pen,  try  the  plan  of 
using  a  close-fitting  rubber  tube  drawn  over  the  part  grasped  by 
the  fingers  when  you  are  writing,  making  it  about  one  half  an 
inch  in  diameter.  Note  whether  you  can  write  with  greater 
ease  with  the  device. 

2.  How  long  at  one  period  can  children  of  six  years  write  with 
medium-pointed  pens  without  overstrain?  Can  they  write  for 
a  longer  period  at  seven  years?  at  eight?  How  can  one  tell 
when  they  are  becoming  fatigued  ? 

3.  From  the  standpoint  of  economizing  nervous  energy,  de- 
scribe the  materials  pupils  should  use,  speaking  of  pens,  pencils, 
paper,  sewing  utensils,  etc. 

4.  Should  high-school  students  be  required  to  do  much  pre- 
cise work  with  the  microscope  ?  Should  they  be  held  for  precise 
work  in  draughting  ? 

5.  Are  "fancy  work,''  knitting,  sewing,  and  the  like  to  be 
recommended  as  recreation  for  girls  who  are  in  school  five  hours 
a  day?     Mention  beneficial  exercises  for  such  girls,  with  reasons. 

6.  Speak  in  detail  of  the  methods  you  would  adopt  in  pre- 
venting wasteful  postures  of  pupils  in  the  schoolroom.  Com- 
ment on  the  postures  shown  in  Figs.  36,  p.  235;  37,  p.  236; 
38,  p-  237. 

7.  Try  this  experiment:  find  among  your  companions  one 
who  wears  quite  "strong"  glasses  to  correct  a  different  defect 
from  your  own,  if  you  have  one.  Put  on  these  glasses  for  a  little 
time  and  note  results.     What  is  the  relation  between  eye-strain 

377 


378  MENTAL   DEVELOPMENT   AND    EDUCATION 

ihus   artificially    produced    and    that    resulting    from    defective 


vision 


8.  If  you  can  do  so,  secure  from  all  your  associates  who  wear 
glasses  a  statement  of  their  experience  with  defective  vision. 
Wliat  dilTiculties  has  the  wearing  of  glasses  corrected?  What 
influence  have  glasses  had  on  their  emotional  life? 

Q.  What  would  you  say  to  parents  who  object  to  having  their 
children  who  have  defective  vision  wear  glasses,  maintaining 
that  they  will  outgrow  their  trouble  as  they  get  older? 

ID.  Pay  a  visit  to  the  nearest  elementary  and  high  school, 
and  find  out  what  proportion  of  the  pupils  wear  glasses.  What 
is  suggested  to  you  as  a  result  of  your  inquiry? 

1 1 .  Are  long  recesses  valuable  for  the  release  of  tension  ?  Are 
they  beneficial  in  respect  to  mental  efficiency  immediately  after 
the  recesses?  What  is  the  value  of  long  gymnastic  periods  for 
the  release  of  tension  and  for  mental  efficiency? 

12.  Are  the  school  buildings  in  your  neighborhood  in  the 
vicinity  of  playgrounds  where  the  pupils  may  play  at  recess? 
If  not.  how  do  they  secure  relaxation  during  the  school  day? 

13.  Comment  on  the  fol  owing  situation :  A  school  building 
is  located  on  a  busy  street,  but  is  surrounded  by  a  strip  of  grass. 
The  teachers  forbid  the  pupils  to  step  on  the  grass ;  and  they 
also  warn  them  against  playing  on  the  street.  They  must  keep 
out  of  the  way  of  pedestrians  and  vehicles,  and  they  must  not 
shout  or  make  any  noise  which  will  disturb  residents  or  passers-by. 
Further,  the  pupils  are  forbidden  to  run  or  play  or  shout  within 
the  building  during  intermissions. 

14.  May  gymnastic  exercises  be  made  a  substitute  for  re- 
cesses ?     Why  ? 

15.  What  is  the  effect  on  the  expenditure  of  energy  of  the 
practice,  alike  in  elementary  and  in  high  schools,  of  having  a 
class  recite  where  others  are  studying?  Discuss  this  matter 
from  the  standpoint  of  those  who  study  and  also  those  who 
recite. 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:    WASTEFUL  PRACTICES      379 

16.  What  are  the  effects  of  formal  examinations  on  conserva- 
tion of  energy?  Which  is  preferable,  the  frequent  quiz  or  in- 
frequent examination  ? 

17.  In  some  schools  the  pupils  loiter  about  the  halls  during 
recess  and  before  and  after  school.  Would  a  teacher  be  justified 
in  sending  these  pupils  out  to  play  ?     Why  ? 

18.  How  is  the  estabhshment  of  out-door  schools  related  to 
conservation  of  energy  ? 

19.  A  certain  school  has  a  twenty-minute  recess  each  morning 
and  afternoon  and  a  noon  intermission  of  one  hour,  but  no  other 
periods  of  relaxation  during  the  school  day,  while  another  school 
has  no  long  recess  but  three-minute  periods  of  relaxation  between 
classes.  Comment  on  the  two  plans  from  the  standpoint  of 
conserving  energy. 

20.  Two  classes  under  the  same  instructor  have  the  same  work 
to  do.  The  first  class,  which  meets  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
is  well  on  with  its  work  and  its  standard  is  high.  The  second 
class,  which  meets  at  i  :  30  in  the  afternoon,  is  behind  in  its 
schedule ;  and  although  some  of  the  members  are  among  the 
best  students  in  college  the  standing  of  the  class  is  low.  What 
may  be  the  reasons  for  the  difference  in  the  work  of  the  two 
classes  ? 

21.  Say  first  whether  Patrick's  views  as  set  forth  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  appear  to  be  well  grounded.  Then  point  out  the 
bearing  upon  the  program  of  daily  life  of  the  principles  you  re- 
gard as  sound : 

"In  fact  the  world  has  lately  been  getting  too  severely  serious 
and  laborious.  Too  much  hard  thinking  is  demanded  to  keep 
up  the  modern  pace.  Whether  in  journalism,  in  literature,  in 
scientific  research,  in  mechanical  invention,  in  social  and  educa- 
tional reform,  in  labor  movements,  or  in  the  feverish  struggle 
for  wealth,  the  higher  brain  is  taxed  to  a  degree  incommensurate 
with  the  possibiHty  of  physiological  adjustment.     Our  physical 


380  MENTAL  DEVELOPMENT  AND   EDUCATION 

constitution  cannot  so  quickly  adapt  itself  to  this  suddenly  in- 
creased demand  upon  certain  specific  nervous  functions  com- 
paratively new  and  unstable.  Reactions  of  one  kind  or  another 
arc  therefore  inevitable."  Patrick,  Psychology  of  Relaxation, 
p.  88. 

22.  Illustrate  the  following  passage  from  Gould  by  assuming 
the  postures  which  he  describes  and  say  whether  or  not  the 
principles  presented  are  of  importance  in  avoiding  waste  in 
school  work. 

"The  pathology  of  school  life  in  a  multitude  of  symptoms  and 
diseases  consists  for  the  greater  part  in  the  unhygienic  attempts 
to  see  the  writing-field  with  the  dominant  eye.  And  the  two 
great  blunders  of  all  the  teachers  and  desk-makers  are  that  the 
penholders  and  pens  are  not  shaped  so  that  the  writing  space 
or  field  about  the  pen-point  can  be  seen  with  both  eyes  when 
the  body  and  head  are  erect ;  or  that  the  desk  is  not  inclined  at 
an  angle  of  about  30°,  and  the  writing  paper  is  not  placed  squarely 
and  opposite  the  right  shoulder,  with  the  body  and  head  erect 
and  squarely  postured  before  the  desk.  With  the  paper  so  placed, 
the  desk  top  so  inclined,  the  body  and  head  thus  erect,  the  right 
eye  sees  the  paper  at  12  inches  or  14  inches,  and  the  writing  is 
vertical."     Gould,  Right-handedness  and  Left-handedness,  p.  161. 

23.  Point  out  the  bearing  of  the  following  passage  from  Gould 
upon  the  question  of  requiring  a  left-handed  pupil  to  write  with 
his  right  hand,  or  vice  versa: 

"A  little  closer  observation  soon  demonstrates  that  not  only 
is  the  right-handed  person  also  right-eyed,  but  that  he  is  usually 
right-footed,  and  right-eared.  This  is  equivalent  to  saying  that 
a  person  is  either  dextro-expert,  generally,  as  to  ear,  eye,  hand, 
and  foot,  or  else  he  is  sinistro-expert.  There  must  manifestly 
be  a  unity  in  the  coordinations  of  all  acts,  and  such  coordinations 
would  evidently  be  better  with  a  habitual  one-sided  similarity 
of  execution  running  through  all  kinds  of  action,  so  that  there 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:    WASTEFUL  PRACTICES      381 

would  be  no  indecision  in  rapid  and  dangerous  acts.  The  unity 
and  the  resultant  promptness  and  accuracy  of  all  motions  is 
thus  enhanced  by  a  synchronous  dextro-expertness  or  sinistro- 
expertness.  The  mixed  type,  illustrated  by  the  so-called  ambi- 
dextrous, would  place  the  organism  at  a  wretched  disadvantage 
in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  in  the  social  struggle  of  the 
highest  types  of  civilized  Hfe."     Gould,  op.  cit.,  p.  183. 

24.    Is  it  important  to  have  one  or  more  dental  clinics  as  a 
part  of  the  equipment  of  the  public  school  system  in  every  town 


Fig.  84.  —  One  method  of  lighting  a  schoolroom.     (See  exercise  25.) 

and  city  ?     Why  ?     Should  there  be  a  township  or  county  clinic 
for  rural  school  pupils  ? 

25.  Comment  on  the  lighting  shown  in  the  accompanying 
picture  (Fig.  84.) 

26.  What  may  be  the  cause  or  causes  of  the  postures  shown 
in  Fig.  61,  p.  254? 

27.  What  postural  habits  are  likely  to  produce  the  physical 
defects  shown  in  Fig.  85  ? 

28.  Show  in  as  great  detail  as  possible  how  fatigue  is  mani- 
fested in  the  people  about  you. 


38-' 


MENTAL    l)K\  KI.OI'MKXr   AND    EDUCATION 


29.  Study  those  you  know  who  exhibit  fatigue  "nerve-signs," 
and  see  if  you  can  tell  what  has  been  the  principal  factor  in  caus- 
ing their  fatigue. 

30.  Make  out  a  list  of  the  ways  in  which  you  think  people  in 
general  and  pui)ils  in  particular  waste  their  energies. 

31.  Observe  those  about  you  who  seem  always  to  have  an 
abundance  of  energy  for  any  tasks  to  be  performed.     Are  they 

on  the  whole  less  or  are  they 
more  active  than  persons  who 
are  in  a  depleted  condition? 
What  is  the  secret  of  their  being 
able  to  keep  a  stock  of  energy 
on  hand  ? 

3  2 .  Do  persons  who  enjoy  their 
work  ordinarily  suffer  from  nerv- 
ous depletion?  Compare  them 
in  this  respect  with  persons  who 
regard  their  work  as  drudgery. 
Discuss  the  principle  involved  as 
it  relates  to  the  school. 

T^T,.  Do  those  who  have  the 
least  play  and  freedom  from 
strain  in  their  lives  consume  the 

most  tea,  coffee  and  tobacco  as  compared  with  persons  of  leisure 

and  comfort? 

34.  Is  it  a  fact  that  "society''  women  are  more  subject  to 
nervous  breakdown  than  women  who  have  much  less  leisure  and 
more  work?     Explain. 

35.  Is  compulsory  i)hysiral  exercise  likely  to  be  benefi- 
cial? 

36.  If  pupils  are  permitted  to  play  only  the  games  in  which 
they  are  most  interested,  will  they  secure  an  all-round  physical 
development  ? 


Fig.  85.  —  Cun'ature  of  the  spine  is 
frequently  seen  in  school  children.  (See 
e.\ercise  27.) 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:    WASTEFUL  I>RArTICES      383 

37.  Is  too  much  claimed  in  the  following  quotation  for  rhythm 
as  a  means  of  saving  wear  and  tear  in  action : 

"Thus  rhythm  is  a  narcotic,  putting  the  keener  sensibility 
to  sleep,  shutting  off  the  higher  mechanism  and  leaving  the  rest 
of  the  machinery  to  run  on  without  unnecessary  wear  and  tear. 
And  rhythm  has  through  the  possession  of  this  property  saved 
millions  of  toilers  from  death  by  slow  torture,  and  has  been  a 
great  blessing  to  the  race.  When  the  end  has  been  decided  on 
and  the  road  stretches  far  ahead,  it  is  a  boon  to  have  this  good 
fairy  descend,  wrap  us  in  her  cloud,  and  carry  us  through  as  in 
a  sleeping  car.  It  is  well  that  the  captain  can  sometimes  set 
the  course  and  go  to  sleep."     Lee,  Play  in  Education,  p.  155. 

38.  Do  the  most  active  men  and  women  in  present-day  life 
indulge  most  liberally  in  alcoholic  drinks,  or  is  the  reverse  true? 
Do  the  most  diUgent  and  successful  students  drink  the  most  or 
the  least  when  compared  with  the  loafing  and  pleasure-loving 
students?  Certain  classes  of  persons,  as  actors  and  actresses, 
miners,  the  socially  ''elite,"  cowboys,  reporters  on  urban  daily 
papers,  and  so  on,  are  heavy  drinkers  as  compared  with  teachers, 
ministers,  judges  and  the  like.  Explain  the  facts  in  view  of 
Patrick's  theory  that  people  indulge  in  alcohohc  drinks  in  order 
to  secure  relaxation. 

39.  Comment  on  the  following:  *'I  have  never  been  able  to 
recite  well  in  class  since  I  was  in  the  fourth  grade.  One  of  the 
other  pupils  did  not  know  his  lessons  for  two  or  three  days  and 
the  teacher  lost  his  temper  the  third  day.  He  severely  whipped 
the  child  before  the  whole  school,  and  this  made  such  an  impres- 
sion on  me  that  every  time  I  was  called  upon  thereafter  I  became 
so  frightened  that  I  was  hardly  able  to  speak.  I  have  outgrown 
the  fear,  but  still  I  am  never  able  to  recite  well.  Nervous  energy 
is  lost  every  day  I  am  in  a  school  where  I  have  to  recite." 

40.  A  young  teacher  walked  six  miles  a  day  to  and  from 
school.     After  teaching  from  9  a.  m.  till  4 :  30  p.  m.  she  went 


,^84  MEMAL   DENELUl'MLNT   AND   EDUCATION 

home  and  prepared  supper  for  the  family.  Then  she  planned 
her  work  and  corrected  paj)ers  till  bedtime.  What  do  you  think 
of  a  program  like  this  for  a  teacher? 

41.  Discuss  the  psychology  of  anxiety,  and  show  why  it  in- 
creases tensions. 

42.  Do  we  regard  any  book  as  great  that  tends  to  increase 
man's  anxieties?  Take  your  favorite  book,  and  speak  of  it 
from  this  standpoint. 

43.  What  musical  selections  are  most  quieting  in  their  in- 
fluence upon  you?  What  ones  tend  to  arouse  you  most  vigor- 
ously ? 

44.  What  musical  instruments  are  most  soothing  to  you? 
What  ones  stimulate  you  ?     Doany  of  them  irritate  you?     Why? 

45.  What  kinds  or  qualities  or  characteristics  of  music  please 
children  of  different  ages  most?  What  airs  quiet  them  when 
they  are  excited?  What  ones  excite  them?  Study  this  matter 
on  the  street,  in  the  schoolroom  and  in  the  home. 

46.  Do  children  enjoy  solo  singing  ?  Are  they  affected  chiefly 
by  the  masculine  or  by  the  feminine  voice?  Do  they  enjoy 
chorus  singing? 

47.  How  are  you  affected  when  you  are  in  a  house  filled  with 
bric-a-brac?  Are  you  affected  differently  when  you  are  in  a 
house  more  simply  furnished?  Comment  on  the  facts  as  you 
find  them. 

48.  Will  maps  and  pictures  hung  at  all  angles  in  a  school- 
room affect  the  poise  and  nervous  tension  of  teacher  and  pupils  ? 
Explain. 

49.  What  color  does  one  usually  find  in  rest  rooms?     Why? 

50.  Can  a  color  or  form  combination  to  which  a  child  does 
not  object  produce  wasteful  tension  ? 

51.  W^hat  are  the  physical  and  aesthetic  qualities  you  would 
demand  in  a  teacher  in  order  that  he  might  conserve  the  energy 
of  his  pupils? 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:    WASTEFUL  PRACTICES      38 


>•)":> 


52.  In  a  certain  business  college  the  students  listen  to  music 
every  day  during  the  penmanship  hour.  It  does  not  seem  to 
distract  their  attention  from  their  work  and  they  enjoy  it.  Com- 
ment on  this  practice. 

53.  Should  highly  colored  pictures  such  as  "The  Thin  Red 
Line,"  "Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware,"  "Custer's  Last 
Fight,"  etc.,  be  hung  in  the  schoolroom? 

54.  Can  the  following  statements  be  justified  ?  If  so,  on  what 
grounds  ? 

There  should  be  \'acation  schools  in  every  town  and  city 
in  our  country.  This  does  not  mean  that  every  child  in 
America  should  be  in  a  school  during  the  summer.  But  every 
child  of  school  age  who  has  no  employment,  or  who  is  not  able 
to  travel  or  to  spend  his  time  in  learning  the  mysteries  and  de- 
lights of  nature  as  presented  in  the  fields  or  in  the  woods  or  on 
the  shores  of  a  river  or  a  lake,  would  be  helped  by  spending  from 
two  to  four  hours  every  week-day  in  a  vacation  school. 

55.  Would  you  be  willing  to  give  the  following  advice  to  pu- 
pils?    Why? 

"Just  as  a  bicycle-chain  may  be  too  tight,  so  may  one's  care- 
fulness and  conscientiousness  be  so  tense  as  to  hinder  the  running 
of  one's  mind.  Take,  for  example,  periods  when  there  are  many 
successive  days  of  examination  impending.  One  ounce  of  good 
nervous  tonic  in  an  examination  is  worth  many  pounds  of  anxious 
study  for  it  in  advance.  If  you  want  really  to  do  your  best  in 
an  examination,  fling  away  the  book  the  day  before,  say  to  your- 
self, '  I  won't  waste  another  minute  on  this  miserable  thing,  and 
I  don't  care  an  iota  whether  I  succeed  or  not.'  Say  this  sincerely, 
and  feel  it ;  and  go  out  and  play,  or  go  to  bed  and  sleep,  and  I 
am  sure  the  results  next  day  will  encourage  you  to  use  the  method 
permanently."     James,   Talks  to   Teachers,  etc.,   pp.    222-223. 

56.  Suggest  feasible  and  effective  methods  of  dealing  with 
the  problem  described  below  : 


380  MEMAL   1)  i:\KU)  I'M  EM"   AM)    LUUCA  llON 

In  modern  life  many  children  are  so  resUess  that  Ihey  can- 
not sit  or  stand  quietly  for  even  a  brief  moment.  The  nervous 
system  becomes  so  excitable  that  these  tense  children  must  be 
doing  something  every  second ;  and  unfortunately,  this  ceaseless 
activity  tends  lo  aggravate  nervous  strain.  A  child  who  is 
moving  constantly  in  his  seat  or  who  cannot  stand  quietly  for 
a  few  seconds  is  likely  to  go  from  bad  to  worse. 

57.  Do  you  approve  of  the  following  suggestions  ?     Why  ? 

All  pupils  should  have  experience  in  trying  to  control  restless- 
ness. It  is  undoubtedly  under  the  control  of  the  will  to  a  certain 
extent.  Any  pupil  should  be  able  to  sit  still  for  half  a  minute, 
probably  not  with  the  arms  folded  because  this  suggests  strain, 
but  with  his  hands  on  the  top  of  the  desk,  say,  and  with  his  whole 
body  relaxed.  In  the  same  way  he  should  be  able  to  stand 
quietly  with  the  body  relaxed  for  half  a  minute.  He  should  be 
able  to  do  this  even  with  his  eyes  shut,  which  is  a  very  excellent 
sort  of  training  for  the  nervous  system.  If  he  cannot  stand  for 
half  a  minute  under  these  conditions,  let  him  begin  with  a  quarter 
of  a  minute,  and  let  the  length  of  the  period  be  continually  in- 
creased. 

58.  What  can  be  said  for  or  against  the  method  of  seating 
shown  in  Fig.  62,  p.  255  ?  Speak  of  the  seat  and  the  desk,  singly 
and  in  relation  to  each  other,  and  the  position  of  the  pupil. 

59.  Comment  on  the  following  from  Alexander.  Are  the 
statements  correct?  If  so,  how  can  the  evil  complained  of  be 
avoided  ? 

"Suppose  a  pupil  is  asked  to  stand  upright  and  take  a  'deep 
breath.'  It  will  be  found  that  he  immediately  makes  movements 
which  tend  to  retard  the  proper  action  of  the  respiratory  pro- 
cesses rather  than  to  promote  such  action.  For  instance,  it  is 
almost  certain  that  in  the  attempt  to  make  the  movement  re- 
ferred to  he  will  stiffen  the  muscles  of  his  neck,  throw  back  the 
head,  hollow  the  back,  protrude  the  stomach,  and  take  breath 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:    WASTEFUL  PRACTICES      387 

by  audibly  sticking  air  into  the  lungs.  The  muscles  over  the 
entire  surface  of  the  bony  thorax  will  be  unduly  tensed,  tending 
to  more  or  less  harmful  thoracic  rigidity  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  maximum  of  mobility  is  needed.  How  could  the  re- 
sult be  otherwise?"  Alexander,  Man's  Supreme  Inheritance, 
p.  201. 

60.  How  may  laughter  be  employed  to  relax  tensions  developed 
in  the  schoolroom?  Mention  typical  incidents  which  produce 
laughter  in  pupils  of  different  ages,  and  say  whether  these  in- 
cidents should  be  created  by  the  teacher  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
laxing tensions. 

61.  Could  cartoons,  as  described  in  the  following  from  Patrick, 
be  employed  in  the  schoolroom  to  relax  tensions  ? 

"In  nearly  all  cartoons,  situations  in  our  highly  complex  and 
involved  political  and  social  life  are  graphically  translated  into 
simple  and  racially  familiar  scenes.  Constant  use  is  made  of 
the  poultry-yard,  the  farm-yard,  the  stable,  the  fish-pond,  the 
swimming-hole,  the  wood-shed,  the  kitchen,  the  breakfast- table, 
the  sick-room,  and  every  kind  of  domestic  or  rural  scene.  Ani- 
mals such  as  the  mule,  the  cow,  the  cat,  the  hen  and  chicks,  the 
ducks  and  geese,  all  racially  familiar,  but  now  disappearing  from 
our  city  life,  greet  us  again  in  the  daily  cartoons  and  bring  us 
corresponding  joy.  So  also  appear  the  familiar  apple  and  pear 
trees,  the  vegetable  garden,  the  old  pump,  the  grindstone,  the 
birch  rod  and  the  slipper,  and  the  doctor  and  his  bottle  of  medi- 
cine, the  cradle  and  the  grave."  Patrick,  Psychology  of  Re- 
laxation, pp.  1 20-1 21. 

62.  It  is  the  popular  view  that  people  drink  beer,  whisky, 
wine,  etc.,  for  the  stimulation  they  derive  from  alcohol.  Discuss 
this  popular  view  in  connection  with  the  view  presented  by 
Patrick  below : 

"Alcohol  is  stimulating,  not  directly,  for  its  physiological 
action  is  wholly  depressive,  but  indirectly  by  inhibiting  the  higher 


388  MKMAL   DENEl.Ol'MKNT  AND   EDUCATION 

mental  processes  and  setting  free  the  older  and  more  i)rimitive 
ones.  Thus,  alcohol  ajjpcars  as  a  depressant  of  voluntary  atten- 
tion and  effort,  of  logical  associations  and  abstract  reasoning, 
of  foresight  and  prudence,  of  anxiety  and  worry,  of  modesty  and 
reserve,  and  the  higher  sentiments  in  general,  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  acts  indirectly  as  an  excitant  of  speech,  and  laughter, 
and  song ;  of  emotional  feeling  and  expression  ;  of  sentimentality  ; 
and  in  increased  doses,  of  still  older  and  more  basic  impulses, 
such  as  garruhty,  quarrelsomeness,  recklessness,  immodesty ; 
and  finally,  of  coarseness  and  criminal  tendencies."  Patrick, 
op.  cit.,  p.  207. 

63.  Do  the  young  indulge  in  profanity  because  they  are  over- 
strained? Are  the  most  profane  persons  those  who  are  most 
tense  or  inhibited?  Should  parents  and  teachers  tolerate  and 
even  encourage  the  use  of  profanity  by  the  young  as  a  means 
of  relaxation  ? 

64.  What  is  to  be  said  for  and  against  the  methods  of  inducing 
pupils  to  relax,  as  shown  in  Figs.  63,  p.  258,  and  64,  p.  260? 

65.  Suggest  evidence  in  support  or  in  denial  of  the  following 
from  Professor  James : 

"The  American  overtension  and  jerkiness  and  breathlessness 
and  intensity  and  agony  of  expression  are  primarily  social,  and 
only  secondarily  physiological,  phenomena.  They  are  bad  habits, 
nothing  more  or  less,  bred  of  custom  and  example,  born  of  the 
imitation  of  bad  models  and  the  cultivation  of  false  personal 
ideals."     James,   Talks  to  Teachers,  etc.,  p.   212. 

66.  Read  the  following;  then  study  carefully  the  pupils  in 
the  school  you  know  best,  or  study  your  associates,  and  see  if 
you  can  observe  the  effects  of  undue  strain  which  Professor 
Jennings  mentions.  Describe  the  signs  you  rely  upon  in  deter- 
mining whether  one  is  suffering  from  overstrain  : 

"This  driving  of  the  powers  beyond  what  they  are  prepared 
for  leads  to  the  most  serious  difficulties,  particularly  if  the  child 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  :    WASTEFUL  PRACTICES      389 

is  very  conscientious  or  nervous,  and  so  aids  in  driving  itself. 
Forced  into  this  one  channel,  the  bodily  energy  stops  attending 
to  its  other  duties.  Appetite  disappears ;  the  body  no  longer  can 
attend  properly  to  nutrition  ;  the  chemical  processes  of  the  body 
get  into  confusion ;  poisons  are  produced  instead  of  protective 
substances ;  resistance  is  broken  down ;  the  bacterial  blights 
gain  a  footing;  the  nervous  system  functions  badly.  The  be- 
ginnings of  such  troubles  are  shown  in  the  twitchings  of  the  face 
or  limbs  that  are  so  common.  We  hardly  realize  how  close  we 
keep  our  children  in  school  to  this  precipice  of  overstrain ;  many 
of  us  see  even  the  manifest  symptoms  appear  without  realizing 
what  they  mean."     Jennings,  et  al.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  44-45. 


XIV 

OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION:   CONDITIONS  AFFECTING 
ENDURANCE 

1.  What  effect  upon  a  boy's  mental  efficiency  and  endurance 
would  the  habits  of  living  described  below  have?  What  course 
of  training  should  be  followed  with  such  a  boy  ? 

M.  overindulges  in  everything  that  appeals  to  his  palate. 
His  parents  do  not  restrain  him  adequately  because  he  is  their 
only  son  and  heir  and  they  want  him  to  have  a  "good  time." 
This  boy  eats  mainly  soft,  mushy,  sweet  foods,  and  soft  white 
bread,  always  leaving  the  crust.  He  will  not  eat  any  dark  bread, 
or  any  food  with  a  rough  element  like  bran.  He  will  not  touch 
fat  meat,  or  any  vegetables  except  mashed  potatoes.  His  parents 
were  advised  that  he  'should  eat  baked  potatoes  in  order  to  se- 
cure the  minerals  which  are  usually  lost  in  mashed  potatoes ;  but 
the  boy  says  baked  potatoes  are  "horrid."  He  shines  mainly 
when  it  comes  to  desserts,  and  he  will  ask  for  two  or  three  help- 
ings of  any  sweet  thing  on  the  table.  The  family  frequently 
have  desserts  requiring  chocolate  dressing.  The  boy  will  over- 
indulge in  such  desserts,  and  he  will  lie  awake  at  night  because 
he  is  overs timula ted,  and  yet  the  next  day  he  will  indulge  to 
excess  again. 

2.  A  certain  mother  having  a  twelve-year-old  son  and  a 
fifteen-year-old  daughter  will  under  no  consideration  let  them 
eat  anything  between  meals.  During  the  cold  weather  they  come 
home  from  school  ravenously  hungry ;  still  they  are  compelled 
to  wait  until  supper  to  appease  their  hunger.  Comment  on  the 
mother's  plan. 

390 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  391 

3.  A  fourteen-year-old  girl  after  spending  most  of  her  time 
from  8  :  30  to  4  o'clock  in  school  must  practice  her  music  for  two 
hours  when  she  gets  home.     Is  this  plan  to  be  commended? 

4.  Are  the  conditions  complained  of  below  typical?  If  so, 
how  can  they  be  improved? 

The  writer  recently  inspected  a  rural  school  in  a  prosperous 
section  of  the  state  of  Iowa.  It  would  be  difficult  to  overstate 
the  unhygienic  conditions  in  and  about  this  school.  The  build- 
ing was  located  in  a  swampish  spot,  which  had  been  set  aside 
for  the  school  because  the  ground  was  not  good  for  raising  crops. 
The  floor  of  the  hovel  was  so  much  out  of  repair  that  one  had  to 
be  careful  not  to  step  through  the  holes.  There  were  numerous 
cracks  in  the  walls  which  let  in  gusts  of  zero  air.  There  was  an 
unjacketed  stove  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  The  children  who 
sat  near  it  were  about  125  degrees  on  one  side  and  50  degrees  on 
the  other ;  it  would  not  have  been  surprising  if  they  had  split 
open.  The  ceiling  and  walls  had  been  whitewashed  in  an  ancient 
day,  but  no  one  would  have  suspected  it,  for  the  dirt  of  ages  had 
accumulated  on  them.  In  the  corner  of  the  room  there  were  a 
foul-looking  water-pail  and  a  still  fouler-looking  dipper  from  which 
all  the  children  drank.  The  seats  were  ill  adapted  to  the  children 
who  sat  in  them. 

5.  Is  the  evil  complained  of  below  widespread?  Suggest 
methods  of  controlling  it. 

A  prominent  cause  of  physical  and  nervous  instability  among 
children  is  over-indulgence  in  sweets.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
system  can  assimilate  a  certain  amount  of  sugar,  still  the  quantity 
is  quite  limited.  When  a  child  goes  to  excess  in  the  use  of  sugar 
it  acts  as  an  irritant  in  the  organism,  and  instead  of  nourishing 
him  it  dissipates  his  energy.  Children  who  overindulge  in 
sweets  often  lose  flesh,  partly  because  an  undue  amount  of 
sugar  overtaxes  the  eliminative  organs  and  upsets  the  bodily 
machinery.     Athletes  are  not  permitted  to  indulge  heavily  in 


392  MENTAL   DEVELOrMENT   AND   EDUCATION 

sweets,  for  when  they  do  they  become  flabby,  "  lose  their  breath  " 
easily  and  their  endurance  declines.  A  distinguished  scientist 
has  recently  said  that  at  least  one  third  of  the  energy  of  American 
people  is  wasted  on  account  of  the  excessive  use  of  sweets.  He 
maintains  that  a  considerable  part  of  disease  in  modern  life  is 
due  to  the  irritations  developed  by  sugar. 

6.  Comment  on  the  desirability  and  practicability  of  the 
suggestion  contained  in  the  following : 

Before  the  war  broke  out  a  movement  was  started  to  utilize 
the  roofs  of  buildings  for  playgrounds.  When  our  cities  were 
built  no  thought  was  taken  of  using  roof  space  in  this  way,  and 
so  most  roofs  are  not  adapted  to  this  purpose.  But  a  survey 
of  roof  facilities  in  some  cities  has  shown  that,  with  but  little 
modification,  considerable  roof  space  could  be  made  well  adapted 
to  the  needs  of  the  young  for  playgrounds  and  gardens  for  phys- 
ical training.  Considering  what  an  advantage  it  would  be  if 
children  could  be  kept  out  of  the  noise  and  excitement  and  dust 
of  the  street,  is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  the  time  will  come  in 
every  large  town  and  city  when  a  large  part  of  the  roof  space 
will  be  devoted  to  the  needs  of  the  young? 

7.  Make  practical  applications  to  the  daily  life  of  the  young 
of  the  principle  presented  in  the  following  quotation  from  Pro- 
fessor Jennings : 

"The  chief  thing  we  can  do  is  to  keep  the  child's  resistance 
high.  The  bacterial  demons  are  everywhere,  but  one  child  they 
blight,  while  another  blossoms.  The  difference  is  one  of  resist- 
ance. The  time  will  come  when  medical  practice  will  be  directed 
even  more  to  the  keeping  up  of  resistance  than  to  avoiding  or 
killing  bacteria.  But  what  is  resistance,  and  how  is  it  to  be 
kept  high  ?  No  one,  I  think,  would  claim  that  men  yet  completely 
understand  resistance.  But  it  is  clear  that  resistance  is  due  to 
an  activity  of  the  body  in  preparing,  when  attacked  by  enemies, 
substances  which  poison  and  destroy  those  enemies,  without  at 


OVERSTRAIN  IN  EDUCATION  393 

the  same  time  poisoning  the  body  itself.  And  it  seems  to  be 
the  fact  that  for  each  particular  enemy  the  body  prepares  a 
different  poison,  precisely  fitted  to  destroy  that  enemy  and  no 
other.  Now  this  is  something  that  chemists  are  quite  unable 
to  do  when  working  consciously,  and  you  can  imagine  that  it  is 
a  most  difficult  and  delicate  operation  for  the  body.  It  is  pecul- 
iarly subject  to  derangement  in  many  ways,  and  the  cost  of  de- 
rangement is  death  or  severe  injury.  Particularly  is  it  subject 
to  that  general  rule  of  'attention'  which  I  gave  above;  if  the 
powers  of  the  body  are  too  thoroughly  taken  up  with  other  things  ; 
if  there  is  continuous  worry,  fear,  pain,  hunger,  cold,  fatigue, 
nervousness,  overexcitement,  overstrain  of  any  sort,  —  the  deli- 
cate task  of  preparing  a  chemical  which  shall  precisely  resist  the 
attacking  germs  fails;  the  bud  is  blighted."  Jennings,  et  al., 
op.  cit.,  pp.  29-30. 

8.  Comment  on  the  value  of  fresh-air  schools  for  all  children. 
Are  such  schools  particularly  valuable  for  delicate  children? 
Why? 

9.  In  Fig.  65,  p.  272,  and  Fig.  66,  p.  274,  different  kinds  of 
physical  exercise  are  shown.  Is  one  kind  to  be  preferred  above 
the  others?     Explain. 

10.  The  pupil  shown  in  Fig.  67,  p.  284,  was  suffering  from  a 
headache  at  the  time  the  picture  was  taken.  Suggest  possible 
causes  of  her  trouble. 


AUTHORS    REFERRED    TO    OR    QUOTED 
IN  THE   TEXT 


Alexander,  3S7. 
Aristotle,  150. 

Bacon,  358. 
Bain,  35-40. 
Bair,  42. 
Bancroft,  229. 
Barnes,  327-328. 
Bateman,  151. 
Bateson,  61. 
Bell,  141. 
Burk,  128. 

Carlyle,  243. 

Claparede,  257. 

Clark,  375. 

Clouston,  251. 

Coleridge,  345. 

Colvin  and  Bagley,   299-300,  305-306, 

359-  _ 
Comenius,  357. 
Compayr6,  141. 
Cooley,  47. 
Crane,  Stephen,  142. 
Curtis,  143. 

Darwin,  79-80,  243. 

Daskam,  Josephine  Dodge,  142. 

Dearborn,  266. 

De  Quincey,  243. 

Dewey,  141. 

Dresslar,  141. 

Fabre,  61. 

Fer^  360. 

Field,  Eugene,  142. 

Freeman,  305;  330. 

Freeman,  Mary  E.,  142. 

Froebel,  141. 

Galton,  256. 
Gilson,  R.  R.,  142. 
Gould,  241-246,  380-381. 
Graham,  142. 


Habberton,  142. 
Hall,  141,  151,  342. 
Healy,  349,  354. 
Hegel,  ISO. 
Hofifding,  36. 
Holmes,  O.  W.,  142. 
Holmes,  S.  J.,  307,  313. 
Hood,  142. 
Huxley,  243. 

Jacoby,  369. 

James,    250,    252-253,    293,    311,    358,   359, 

38s,  388. 
Jennings,  61,  332,  362,  389,  392. 
Jordan,  President,  30. 
Jordan  and  Kellogg,  352. 

Kant,  150. 

Keatinge,  228,  368,  375. 

Key,  228. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  142. 

Kirkpatrick,  294,  295,  298,  306,  371. 

Le  Bon,  173. 

Lee,  292,  308-309,  383. 

Lees,  315. 

Lindsey,  Judge,  348. 

Lobsien,  228. 

Locke,  141,  274. 

Lubbock,  61,  308. 

Lucretius,  301. 

MacDougall,  48. 
Maeterlinck,  54,  75. 
Mantegazza,  322-323. 
Marshall,  291. 
Martin,  142. 
McDougall,  293. 
Mercier,  137. 
Miller,  312,  316-317. 
Mills,  61. 
Milton,  296,  357. 
Moore,  141. 

Morgan,  Lloyd,  37,  61,  312. 
Mosher,  320. 


395 


;,0^^   VrTHORS  RKFKRRKD  TO  OR  QUOTKD  IN  THK  TKXT 


Ncsbil,  ii-'. 
Nesteroff,  228. 

Oppenheim,  228. 

Patrick,  297,  379.  387. 

Peckhams,  The,  61 . 

Perez,  1,54. 

Pcstalozzi,  141.  357. 

Pfungst,  55. 

Phillpotts,  Eden,  142. 

Plato,  69,  150. 

Plutarch,  141. 

Prentice,  241. 

Preyer,  35,  48,  128,  130,  141,  291,  332. 

Quint  illian,  141. 

Ribot,  137,  255. 

Riley,  James  VVhitcomh,  142. 

Romanes,  313. 

Rousseau,  141,  357. 

Royce,  356. 


SillolT,  341- 

Schuyfcn,  228. 

Shinn,  Miss,  35,  128. 

Sidis,  369,  375. 

Spencer,  141,  228,  243. 

Starr,  344. 

Stuart.  Ruth  McEnery,  142. 

Sully,  141. 

Swift,  243,  245,  315.  .M4.  345.  346. 

Thorndike,  61. 
Trettien,  134. 
Tyler,  330-331.  359- 

Valentine,  228. 

Wagner,  243. 

Washburn,  61. 

Watson,  61,  361,  363. 

While,  311. 

Wilson,  President,  72. 

Woodworth,  313-314- 

Wordsworth,  296,  306,  309. 


INDEX 


Aches  and  Ills,  constructive  treatment  of, 
206-207. 

Acquisition,  176-177. 

Action,  follows  direction  of  attention,  205- 
206. 

Adaptive  Activities,  primitive  forms  of,  35- 
53 ;  trial-and-success,  33-46 ;  helpless- 
ness of  the  infant,  35-38;  first  step  in 
acquiring,  3S-40;  concrete  example  of 
acquiring  a  voluntary  act,  40-41 ;  learning 
involves  excessive  activity,  42-44 ;  in- 
tegration of  simple  acts  into  more  complex 
adjustments,  44-45 ;  nothing  is  learned  dc 
MOW,  45-46;  imitation,  46-53 ;  imitation 
as  a  form  of  adaptive  activity,  46-47; 
phenomena  of  mimicrj',  47 ;  when  imita- 
tion begins,  48-49;  apperception  in  imi- 
tation, 49-50;  principle  illustrated  in 
adult  imitation,  50-51 ;  course  of  develop- 
ment with  respect  to  imitative ness,  51-53; 
higher  forms  of,  54-76;  generalization, 
54-^7 ;  of  animals,  54-57 ;  types  of  in- 
telligence, 57-58;  sensori-motor  response, 
58-59;  horse's  responses  depend  upon 
visual,  auditory,  or  olfactory  cues,  60; 
quality  of  animal  intelligence,  60-61 ; 
popular  misconceptions  regarding  the  abili- 
ties of  animals,  61-64;  illustrations  of  a 
dog's  intelligence,  64-67;  symbolization, 
67-71;  development  of  symbolizing  ac- 
tivities in  the  child,  70-7 1 ;  imagination, 
71-74;  ability  of  individual  to  develop 
free  ideas,  71-72;  ability  to  foresee  con- 
sequences and  adapt  means  to  ends,  72- 
73;  reason,  74-76;  most  important  dis- 
tinction between  primitive  and  higher 
types  of  intelligence,  74-75 ;  analysis  and 
synthesis,  75-76. 

Adolescence,  activities  peculiar  to,  169-184; 
transformations  occur  abruptly  during 
puberty,  169-171;  boys  form  gangs,  171; 
boys  interested  in  tribal  activities,  172; 
boy's  tribal  interest  will  flourish  only  in 
the  gang,  172-173 ;  the  larger  the  gang  the 
more  tribal  its  interests,  173-174;  gang 
promotes  pugnacity,  174;    muscular  con- 


tests, 174-175;  stealing,  175-176;  in- 
stinct of  acquisition,  176-177;  destruction 
of  property,  177-178;  plaguing  people, 
178;  profanity  and  use  of  tobacco,  178; 
truancy,  179-180;  swimming,  180;  com- 
petition in  games,  180-181;  girls  form 
"sets"  which  are  only  loosely  organized, 
181-182;  activities  growing  out  of  sex- 
interest,  182-184;  eagerness  to  find  a 
job,  184. 

/Esthetic  Well-Being,  18-34.  (See  Motive 
Forces  in  Development.) 

Aggression,  22-23. 

Analysis,  in  adaptive  activity,  75-76. 

Ancestral  Life,  activities  reminiscent  of, 
28-31. 

Animals,  adaptive  activities  of,  54-57 ; 
traits  of  intelligence,  60-61 ;  popular  mis- 
conceptions regarding,  61-64. 

Apperception,  in  imitation,  49-50. 

Arithmetic,  principle  of  dynamic  education 
applied  to,  191-193. 

Auditory  Cues,  animals'  responses  depend 
upon,  60. 

Beautiful,  choice  of,  27-28. 
"Blue  Monday,"  278-280. 
Bodily  Attitude,  reflex  effect  of,  254-256. 
Body,  hardening  the,  274-275. 
Boisterous  Games  vs.  indoor  games  for  re- 
laxation, 257-258. 
Boyd,  trainer  of  "King  Pharaoh,"  56. 

Children,  older,  inhibited  in  drawing,  11 3-1 14. 

Children's  Misfortunes,  intensified  by  sug- 
gestion, 207-209. 

Citizenship,  teaching  of,  in  a  dynamic  way, 
198-200. 

Cleanliness,  and  health,  278. 

"Clever  Hans,"  "educated"  horse,  54. 

Clothing,  interest  in,  for  decoration  rather 
than  for  protection,  13;  role  played  by, 
.m  maintaining  vigor,  284-285. 

"Committee  of  Ten,"  on  dynamic  teaching 
of  arithmetic,  192;  on  high-school  teach- 
ing, 196. 


397 


39^ 


INDKX 


"Committee  of  Twelve."  on  si  inly  of  Krencli 
and  German,  igO. 

Communicate,  passion  to,  19-20. 

Community,  morab  of,  may  be  elevated  or 
deKraded  by  suggestion,  214-216. 

Community  Life,  study  of,  20.5-204. 

Competition,  in  games,  180- 181. 

Concepts,  free,  controlled  l)y  ends  to  l)e 
attained,  73-74. 

Conflict,  of  motive  forces,  9-10. 

Constructive  Impulse,  as  a  motive  force, 
24-26. 

Coordination,  the  development  of,  128-1.59; 
in  infancy,  128-129;  first  stages  in  acquir- 
ing manual  dexterity,  129-130;  urge  of 
development  is  toward  extremities,  1,50- 
i3i',  development  of  pedal  control,  134- 
13s;  development  of,  in  speech,  13S-136; 
illustrated  in  child's  use  of  sentences,  136- 
137;   order  of  losing  in  degeneration,  137- 

139- 
Cues,  animal's  responses  depend  uix)n,  60. 

"Dead"  Air,  toxic  effect  of,  283-284. 

Decoration,  interest  in  clothing  for,  13. 

Degeneration,  order  of  losing  coordination 
in,  137-139;   phenomena  of,  151-153- 

Dc  Novo,  nothing  is  learned,  45-46. 

Diagrams,  mafle  by  child  in  drawing,  114- 
116;  always  same  for  any  given  object, 
116-117. 

Dog,  illustration  of  intelligence  of,  64-67. 

Drawing,  acquisition  of,  much  harder  than 
language,  125-126;    psychology  of,  127. 

Drawings,  studies  of  children's,  110-112; 
children's,  logical  relations  revealed  in, 
120-123. 

Driving  Forces,  role  of,  in  development.  {See 
Motive  Forces  in  Development.) 

Dynamic  Education,  187-217;  general  prin- 
ciples, 187-205;  meaning  of,  187;  how 
the  child  is  enabled  to  interpret  the  world 
about  him,  187-188;  principle  illustrated 
in  Montessori  schools,  188-190;  principle 
applied  to  all  school  work,  190-191;  even 
formal  studies  can  be  taught  dynamically, 
194-195;  dynamic  methods  in  secondary 
education,  195-196;  making  rhetoric 
dynamic,  196-197;  teaching  of  science  in 
high  school,  197-198;  dynamic  teaching  of 
citizenship,  198-200;  developing  patriot- 
ism, 200-202;  first  step  in  developing 
love  of  country,  202;  we  are  all  members 
of    one    body,    202-203;     study   of    com- 


munity life,  203-204;  rdle  of  suggestion, 
205-206;  constructive  treatment  of  aches 
and  ills,  206-207;  one  can  intensify  chil- 
dren's misfortunes  by  suggestion,  207- 
209;  use  of  suggestion  in  the  sickroom, 
209-211;  one's  defects  may  be  increased 
by  suggestion,  211-213;  morak  of  a  com- 
munity may  be  elevated  or  degraded  by 
suggestion,  214-216;  suggestion  in  the 
theater,  216-217. 

Emotions,  expres,sion  of  complex,  81-83; 
organic  accompaniments  of,  84-85. 

Endurance,  conditions  affecting,  263-287; 
handicaps  to,  263-264;  why  people  differ 
in,  264-265;  training  for  mental,  265-266; 
training  can  be  overdone,  266;  "off  days," 
266-269;  new  times  bring  new  problems, 
269;  law  of  economy  in  developing  and 
maintaining  organs,  269-271;  organs  that 
are  not  used  tend  to  degenerate,  271; 
intelligence  is  in  the  ascendancy,  271-273; 
price  of  "refined"  training,  273-274; 
hardening  the  body,  274-275;  new  social 
conditions,  275-276;  over-eating  and 
under-cleaning,  276-278;  health  and 
cleanliness,  278;  "Blue  Monday,"  278- 
280;  energy  in  relation  to  indoor  air,  280; 
the  requirements  for  good  ventilation, 
281-283;  toxic  effect  of  "dead"  air,  283- 
284;  role  played  by  clothing  in  main- 
taining vigor,  284-285 ;  energy  in  relation 
to  indoor  temperature,  285-286;  arrang- 
ing a  heating  system,  286-287. 

Energy,  in  relation  to  indoor  air,  280;  in 
relation  to  temperature,  285-286. 

Englishmen,  freedom  of  expression,  92. 

En\ironment,  vying  with  hereditary  forces, 

32-33- 

Experiences  with  Persons,  passion  for,  1&-19. 

Expressional  Activities,  77-127;  vocal,  77; 
indefiniteness  of  first  efforts  at  expression, 
77;  featural,  78-97;  ready-made  means 
of  expression,  78-79;  Darwin's  view  of 
the  origin  of  expression,  79-80;  expression 
of  complex  emotions,  81-83;  organic  ac- 
companiments of  emotion,  84-85 ;  James- 
Lange  theory,  86;  child's  expression  in- 
tense but  of  short  duration,  86-88;  adult 
expression  subdued  but  enduring,  88-90; 
expression  becomes  subdued  with  develop- 
ment, 90-91 ;  women  more  expressive 
than  men,  91-92;  racial  differences  in 
expression,  92-93;    expression  of  thought, 


INDEX 


399 


93-96 ;  reflection  involves  strain  and  effort, 
96-98;  gestural,  q8-io6;  purposeful  ex- 
pressional  activities,  9S-99;  figurative 
gesture,  99-101 ;  gesture  in  conveying 
ideas  of  quality  and  of  action,  101-102; 
gesture  to  emphasize  feeling,  102-103; 
relation  of  gesture  to  language,  103;  in- 
dividual differences  in  the  use  of  gesture, 
104-105;  graphic,  106-110;  the  develop- 
ment of  a  sign  language,  106-107 ;  devel- 
opment of  linguistic  symbols,  107-110; 
pictorial,  1 10-127;  studies  of  children's 
drawings,  110-112;  difficulty  of  repre- 
sentaticn  no  barrier  to  expression,  112- 
113;  older  children  are  inhibited,  113-114; 
child's  diagrams  embody  most  essential 
characteristics  of  objects,  114-116;  always 
the  same  diagram  for  any  given  object, 
II 6-1 17;  special  characteristics  of  ob- 
jects not  included  in  diagrams,  117-120; 
logical  relations  revealed  in  children's 
drawings,  120-123;  difficulty  in  repre- 
senting special  relations,  125;  language 
acquired  more  easily  and  naturally  than 
drawing,  125-126;  psychology  of  draw- 
ing, 127. 
Extremities,    urge    of  development    toward, 

130-133- 
Eye,  in  relation  to  nervous  waste,  240-242 ; 
maladjustment  of  lens,   242-243;    effects 
of  eye-strain,  243-246. 

Fairhope  School,  igi. 

Fear,   as  a  protective  agent,    14-15;    as  a 

motive  force,  15-17. 
Feeling,  use  of  gesture  to  emphasize,   102- 

103. 
Fine  Work,  waste  from,  230-231. 
First  Steps,  in  adaptive  activity,  38-40. 
Food-Securing  Impulse,  5-8. 
Formal    Education,   role    of,    in   developing 

restraint,  1 61-163. 
Formal  Studies,  can  be  taught  dynamically, 

194-195. 
"Fox  and  Geese,"  181. 
Free  Ideas,  ability  of  individual  to  develop, 

71-72. 
Friction,  avoiding  needless,  249-250. 
Fusion,  of  restraining  forces,  160. 

Games,  competitive,  180-181. 
Gangs,  formed  by  boys,  171;    promote  pug- 
nacity, 174. 
Gary  Schools,  191. 


Generalization,  in  adaptive  activities,  54- 
67. 

Germany,  traits  of,  exhibited  during  the 
World  War,  177. 

Gesture,  figurative,  99-101 ;  use  of,  in  con- 
veying ideas,  101-102;  to  emphasize 
feeling,  102-103;  relation  to  language, 
103;  individual  differences  in  use  of, 
104-105. 

Girls,  form  "sets,"  181-182. 

Good  Ventilation,  requirements  of,  281-283. 

Good  Will,  wish  to  secure,  20-21. 

Handicaps,  to  endurance,  263-264. 

"Hare  and  Hounds,"  181. 

Health,  and  cleanliness,  278. 

Heating  System,  arranging  a,  286-287. 

Hereditary  Forces,  vying  with  environment, 

32-33- 
Higher  Forms,  of  adaptive  activities.     (See 

Adaptive  Activities.) 
History,   iniiuence  of  ideals  established   in, 

163-164. 
"Houses  of  Childhood,"  18S. 
Human  Machine,  loss  of  energy  in  muscular 

tensions,  250. 

Ideas,  free,  ability  of  individual  to  develop, 
71-72;  use  of  gesture  in  conveying,  101- 
102. 

Imagination,  71-74;  ability  of  individual  to 
develop  free  ideas,  71-72;  ability  to  fore- 
see consequences  and  adapt  means  to  ends, 
72-73;  free  concepts  controlled  by  ends 
to  be  attained,  73-74. 

Imitation,  role  of,  in  relation  to  hereditary 
forces,  33;  46-53;  as  a  form  of  adaptive 
activity,  46-47;  phenomena  of  mimicrj', 
47 ;  when  imitation  begins,  48-49 ;  apper- 
ception in,  49-50;  principle  illustrated 
in  adult,  50-51;  course  of  development 
with  respect  to,  51-53;  of  self-restraint, 
158-159. 

Imitativeness,    course    of    development    in, 

51-53- 

Impulse,  food-securing,  5-8;  self-protec- 
tive, 8-9;  constructive,  24-26;  to  solve 
intellectual  problems,  26-27.  (See  Motive 
Forces  in  Development.) 

Individual,  the  perfectly  restrained,  154-155. 

Individual  Differences,  in  power  of  endur- 
ance, 264-265.  {See  Inhibition,  Self-Re- 
straint.) 

Indoor  Air,  in  relation  to  energy,  280. 


400 


INDEX 


Ind(X)r  Ciamcs,  rs.  boisterous  games,  for 
relaxation,  257-258. 

Indcwr  Temperature,  in  relation  to  energy, 
2S5-286. 

Infancy,  development  of  coordination  in, 
128-120. 

Infant,  helplessness  of,  35-38. 

Inhibition,  development  of,  140-168;  chil- 
dren's lack  of,  140-142;  effect  of  motor 
restraint  on  mental  activity,  142-145; 
restraint  comes  with  development,  145- 
148;  neuroloRical  view  of,  148-149; 
psychological  view  of,  149-153;  phenom- 
ena of  degeneration,  151-153;  restraining 
forces,  154-168;  perfectly  restrained  in- 
dividual, 154-155;  experiences  which 
develop  restraint,  155-156;  stages  in 
acquiring  restraint,  156-157;  physical 
coercion  not  the  only  force  leading  to  re- 
straint, 157-158;  operation  of  restraining 
influences,  158;  imitation  of  self-restraint, 
158-159;  restraining  influence  of  heroes 
in  stories,  159-160;  fusion  of  restraint 
forces,  160-161 ;  weakening  of  an  impulse, 
161 ;  role  of  formal  education  in  develop- 
ing restraint,  161-163;  influence  of  ideals 
established  in  history,  literature,  et  al.,  163- 
164;  restraining  influence  of  habits  estab- 
lished by  study,  164-165;  individual 
differences  in  the  matter  of  self-restraint, 
165-168. 

Integration,  of  simple  acts  into  more  com- 
plex adjustments,  44-45. 

Intellectual  Weil-Being,  1 8-34.  {See  Motive 
Forces  in  Development.) 

Intelligence,  t>T)es  of,  57-58;  quality  of 
animal,  60-61 ;  illustration  of  a  dog's, 
64-67 ;  one  trait  of  distinctly  human,  67 ; 
distinction  between  primitive  and  higher 
types  of,  74-75;    in  ascendancy,  271-273. 

Irish,  freedom  of  expression,  104. 

Italians,  freedom  of  expression,  92. 

James-Lange  Theory,  86. 
Job,  eagerness  to  find,  184. 

"King  Pharaoh,"  "educated"  horse,  54-61. 
Knowledge,  urge  to  gain,  23-34. 
Krall,  Herr   Karl,   trainer   of   "Muhamed," 
and  "Zarif,"  54. 

Language,  relation  of  gesture  to,  103;  ac- 
quired more  easily  and  naturally  than 
drawing,  125-126. 


Lathrop  Industrial  School,  336-337. 
Leadership,  submission  to,  as  a  motive  force, 

23- 

Learning,  involves  excessive  activity,  42-44. 
Lens,  maladjustment  of,  242-243. 
Literature,  influence  of  ideals  established  in, 

163-164. 
Love  of  Country,  first  step  in  developing,  202. 

Manual  Dexterity,  first  stages  in  acquiring, 
129-130. 

Men,  less  expressive  than  women,  91-92. 

Mental  Activity,  effect  of  motor  restraint  on, 
142-145- 

Mental  Tension,  begets  muscular  tension, 
250-252. 

Mimicr>',  phenomena  of,  47. 

Montessori  Apparatus,  189. 

Montessori  Schools,  principle  of  dynamic 
education  illustrated  in,  188-190. 

Motive  Forces  in  Development,  3-34; 
physical  well-being,  3-17;  illustration  of 
nature  and  role  of  driving  forces,  3-5 ; 
food-securing  impulse,  5-8;  self-protec- 
tive impulse,  8-9;  conflict  of  forces,  9-10; 
resistance  to  remedial  treatment,  10-12; 
self-protection  against  wind  and  weather, 
12-13;  interest  in  clothing  for  decoration 
rather  than  for  protection,  13;  fear  as  a 
protective  agent,  14-15;  fear  as  a  motive 
force,  15-17;  social,  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  well-being,  18-34;  passion  for 
experiences  with  persons,  18-19;  passion 
to  communicate,  19-20;  wsh  to  secure 
the  good  will  of  one's  fellows,  20-21; 
rivalry  as  a  motive  force,  21;  resentment 
and  aggression,  22-23;  submission  to 
leadership  as  a  motive  force,  23;  knowl- 
edge for  its  own  sake,  23-24;  construc- 
tive impulse  as  a  motive  force,  24-26; 
impulse  to  solve  intellectual  problems,  26- 
27;  choice  of  the  beautiful  and  avoidance 
of  the  ugly,  27-28;  activities  reminiscent 
of  ancestral  life,  28-31;  environment 
vying  with  hereditary  forces,  32-33;  r^le 
of  imitation,  s:^ ;  two  forces  acting  on  the 
child  in  his  development,  34. 

Motor  Restraint,  effect  of,  on  mental  activity, 
142-145. 

"Muffin,"  "educated"  dog,  64-67. 

"Muhamed,"  "educated"  horse,  54. 

Muscular  Contests,  174-17; 

Muscular  Tension,  250;  lental  tension 
begets,  250-252. 


INDEX 


401 


Nervous  Energy,  wasting  in  home,  222-223. 
Neurological  View,  of  inhibition,  148-149. 
Noise,  as  a  nervous  irritant,  224-227. 
Northmen",  freedom  of  expression,  92. 

"Off  days,"  266-269. 

Olfactory  Cues,  animals'  responses  depend 
upon,  60. 

Organs,  law  of  economy  in  developing  and 
maintaining,  269-271;  when  not  used 
tend  to  degenerate,  271. 

Over-Eating,   and   under-cleaning,    276-278. 

Overstrain,  in  education,  218-287;  wasteful 
practices,  218-262;  present-day  condi- 
tions cause  of,  218-220;  chief  cause  of, 
220-221;  need  for  periods  of  quiet,  221- 
222 ;  wasting  nervous  energy  in  the  home, 
222-223;  the  teased  child,  223-224; 
noise  as  a  nervous  irritant,  224-227;  in 
the  schools,  227-230;  waste  from  exces- 
sively fine  work,  230-231;  unnecessary 
tension  in  writing,  231-233;  typewriter 
less  wasteful  than  the  pen,  233-235; 
postures  that  lead  to  waste  of  energy,  235- 
240;  eye  in  relation  to  nervous  waste, 
240-242;  maladjustment  of  lens,  242- 
243;  the  effects  of  eye-strain,  243-246; 
importance  of  the  teeth  in  relation  to  con- 
servation of  energy,  247-249;  avoiding 
needless  friction,  249-250;  loss  in  the 
human  machine  from  muscular  tensions, 
250;  mental  tension  begets  muscular 
tension,  250-252;  James  on  "unclamp- 
ing,"  252-253;  reflex  effect  of  bodily 
attitudes,  254-256;  play  as  a  restorative, 
256-257 ;  quiet  indoor  games  vs.  boisterous 
games  for  relaxation,  257-258;  require- 
ments of  relaxation,  259-262;  conditions 
affecting  endurance,  263-287;  handicaps 
to  endurance,  263-264;  why  people  differ 
in  power  of  endurance,  264-265;  training 
for  mental  endurance,  265-266;  training 
can  be  overdone,  266;  "off  days,"  266- 
269;  new  times  bring  new  problems,  269; 
law  of  economy  in  developing  and  main- 
taining organs,  269-271;  organs  that  are 
not  used  tend  to  degenerate,  271 ;  intelli- 
gence is  in  the  ascendancy,  271-273; 
price  of  "refined"  training,  273-274; 
hardening  the  body,  274-275;  new  social 
conditions,  275-276;  over-eating  and 
under-cleaning,  276-278;  health  and 
cleanliness,  278;  "Blue  Monday,"  278- 
280;  energy  in  relation  to  indoor  air,  280; 


what  are  the  requirements  for  good  ven- 
tilation, 281-283;  toxic  effect  of  "dead 
air,  283-284;  riile  played  by  clothing  in 
maintaining  vigor,  284-285;  energy  in 
relation  to  indoor  temperature,  285-286; 
arranging  a  heating  system,  286-287. 

Passion,  for  experiences  with  persons,  18-19; 
to  communicate,  19-20. 

Patriotism,  developing,  200-202. 

Pedal  Control,  development  of,  134-135- 

Pen,  more  wasteful  than  typewriter,  233-235. 

Personal  Defects,  may  be  increased  by  sug- 
gestion, 211-213. 

Persons,  passion  for  experiences  with,  18-19. 

Physical  Weil-Being,  3-17;  illustration  of 
nature  and  role  of  driving  forces,  3-5; 
food-securing  impulse,  5-8;  self-protective 
impulse,  8-9;  conflict  of  forces,  9-10; 
resistance  to  remedial  treatment,  lo-i  2 ; 
self-protection  against  wind  and  weather, 
12-13;  interest  in  clothing  for  decora- 
tion rather  than  for  protection,  13 ;  fear 
as  a  protective  agent,  14-15;  fear  as  a 
motive  force,  15-17. 

"Plaguing  People,"  178. 

Play,  as  a  restorative,  256-257. 

I'ostures,  that  lead  to  waste  of  energy,  235- 
240. 

Primitive  Forms,  of  adaptive  activities. 
[See  Adaptive  Activities.) 

Profanity,  178-179. 

Property,  destruction  of,  177-178. 

Protective  Agent,  fear  as  a,  14-15. 

Psychological  View,  of  inhibition,  149-153; 
phenomena  of  degeneration,  151-153. 

Psychology,  of  drawing,  127. 

Puberty,  transformations  occur  abruptly 
during,  169-171. 

Pugnacity,  promoted  by  gang,  174. 

Quiet,  need  for  periods  of,  221-222. 

Racial  Differences,  in  expression,  92-93. 

Reason,  74-76;  most  important  distinction 
between  primitive  and  higher  types  of  in- 
telligence, 74-75;  analysis  and  synthesis, 
75-76. 

"  Refined  training,"  price  of,  273-274. 

Relaxation,  boisterous  vs.  indoor  games  for, 
257-258;   requirements  of,  259-262. 

Remedial  Treatment,  resistance  to,  10-12. 

Representation,  dithculty  of,  11 2-1 13. 

Resentment,  22-23. 


402 


INDEX 


Resistance  to  Remedial  Treatment,  10-12. 
Restraining  Forces,  fusion  of,  i(x3. 
Restraining  Influences,  operation  of,  158. 
Restraint,    comes    with    development,    145- 

148:    expel ieiices  which  de%elop,  155-156; 

stages    in    acquiring,    156-157;     physical 

coercion  not  the  only  force  leading  to,  157- 

158. 
Rhetoric,    teaching   of,   in  a   dynamic  way, 

io()-ig7. 
Rivalrj',  as  a  motive  force,  21. 

Schools,  overstrain  in,  227-230. 

Science,  teaching  nf,  in  high  school,  197-198. 

Secondary  Education,  dynamic  methods  in, 
195-196. 

Self-Protection,  against  wind  and  weather, 
12-13. 

Self-Protective  Impulse,  8-9. 

Self- Restraint,  imitation  of,  158-159;  in- 
di\-idual  differences  in  the  matter  of,  165- 
168. 

Sensori-Motor  Response,  58-59. 

Sentences,  child's  use  of,  136-137. 

"Sets,"  formed  by  girls,  181-182. 

Sex-Interest,  activities  growing  out  of,  1S2- 
184. 

Sickroom,  use  of  suggestion  in,  209-21 1. 

Sign  Language,  development  of,  106-107. 

Social  WcU-Being,  18-34.  {See  MoJv-c 
Forces  in  Development.) 

Spaniards,  freedom  of  expression,  92. 

Special  Relations,  difficulty  of  representing 
in  drawing,  i  25. 

Speech,  development  of  coordination  in, 
1,^5-136. 

Stealing,  175-176. 

"Steeple  Chase,"  181. 

Study,  restraining  influence  of  habits  estab- 
lished by,  164-165. 

Submission,  to  leadership  as  a  motive  fore; , 
23. 

Suggestion,  role  of,  in  dynamic  education, 
205-217;  action  follows  the  direction  of 
attention,  205-206;  constructive  treat- 
ment of  aches  and  ills,  206-207;  one  can 
intensify  children's  misfortunes  by  sug- 
gestion, 207-209;  use  of,  in  sickroom, 
2og-2ii;  one's  defects  may  be  increased 
by  suggestion,  211-213;  morals  of  a 
community  may  be  elevated  or  degraded 
by  suggestion,  214-216;  in  the  theater, 
216-217. 

Swimming,  180. 


Symholization,  in  adaptive  activities,  67-71; 
one  trait  of  distinctly  human  intelligence, 
67;  importance  of,  in  adaptive  activity, 
67-70;  development  of  symbolizing  ac- 
tivities in  child,  70-71. 

Symbols,  development  of  linguistic,  107-110. 

Synthesis,  in  adaptive  activity,  75-76. 

Teased  Child,  the,  223-224. 

Teeth,  imixjrtance  of,  in  relation  to  conser- 
vation of  energy,  247-249. 

Theater,  suggestion  in,  216-217. 

Thought,  expression  of,  93-96. 

Tobacco,  178-179. 

Toxic  Effect,  of  "dead"  air,  283-284. 

Training,  can  be  overdone,  266. 

Triai-and-Success,  33-46;  helplessness  of 
the  infant,  35-38;  first  steps  in  learning, 
38-40;  concrete  example  of  acquiring  a 
voluntary  act,  40-41;  learning  involves 
excessive  activity,  42-44;  integration  of 
simple  acts  into  more  complex  adjust- 
ments, 44-45;  nothing  is  learned  de  novo, 
45-46. 

Truancy,  179-180. 

Tjpewriter,  less  wasteful  than  pen,  233-235. 

Ugliness,  avoidance  of,  27-28. 
Under-Cleaning,  and  over-eating,  276-278. 

Vigor,  role  played  by  clothing  in  maintaining, 
284-285. 

Visual  Cues,  animals'  responses  depend  upon, 
60. 

Voluntary  Act,  concrete  example  of  acquir- 
ing, 40-41. 

Von  Ostend,  Herr,  trainer  of  "  Clever  Hans," 
55- 

Wasteful  Practices,  218-262;  present-day 
conditions  that  cause  overstrain,  218-220; 
chief  cause  of  overstrain,  220-221;  need 
for  periods  of  quiet,  221-222;  wasting 
nervous  energy  in  the  home,  222-223; 
the  teased  child,  223-224;  noise  as  a 
nervous  irritant,  224-227;  overstrain  in 
the  schools,  227-230;  excessively  fine 
work;  230-231;  unnecessary  tension  in 
writing,  231-233;  typewriter  less  waste- 
ful than  the  pen,  233-235;  postures  that 
lead  to  waste  of  energy,  235-240;  eye 
m  relation  to  nervous  waste,  240-242; 
maladjustment  of  the  lens,  242-243; 
effects  of  eye-strain,  243-246;  importance 


INDEX 


403 


of  the  teeth  in  relation  to  conservation 
of  energy,  247-249;  avoiding  needless 
friction,  240-250;  loss  in  the  human  ma- 
chine from  muscular  tensions,  250;  men- 
tal tension  begets  muscular  tension,  250- 
252;  James,  on  "unclamping,"  252-253; 
reflex  effect  of  bodily  attitude,  254-256; 
play  as  a  restorative,  256-257 ;  quiet 
indoor  games  vs.  boisterous  games,  257- 
258;  requirements  of  relaxation,  25Q-262; 
all  experience  affects  one  for  good  or  ill,  262 . 


Weil-Being,  physical,  3-17;  social,  intel- 
lectual and  xslhetic,  18-34.  (See  Motive 
Forces  in  Development.) 

Wind  and  Weather,  self-protection  against, 
12-13. 

Winnebago  County,  teaching  of  arithmetic 
in,  1 03. 

Women,  more  expressive  than  men,  91-92. 

Writing,   unnecessary  tensions   in,    231-233. 

"Zarif,"  "educated"  horse,  54. 


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